Sam felt a weird pain on the back of his head. He was being dragged into a guest room by Trey. The husky noticed the dober-man trying to get back up on his feet and attempting to walk. Fortunately, Trey caught the stumbling Sam before he hit the ground.

-“Sorry about my brother, he just gets really excited a little bit too quickly. He’s scary sometimes, but it’s kinda understandable since we’ve never really seen each other in person for a really long time.”

The dober-man was still fairly dazed from the tackle he had received earlier. Since Sam was not fond of being in a room with someone else in complete silence, he decided to break the ice and start a conversation.

-“So what’s the story behind your family? How did Grey end up all the way in the other side of Russia?”

-“Uh... Let’s see... Now, I’m going to tell you a story all about how our life got flipped and turned upside down. I’d like you to take a minute and sit right there.”- Trey said as he pointed at a nearby chair. -”I’ll tell you how we got separated in our home town of Bregenz.”

-“Okay... bu-”- Sam attempted to interrupt, but the husky paid no heed as he started his theatrical narration, which might have probably been practiced in advance.

-“We were born and raised in north-western Austria, and were adopted by three brothers with whom we spent most of our days being completely carefree, doing neither good nor ill to anyone, yet experiencing a life of absolute, unadulterated glee. Chilling out, growing up, reading all kinds of books, and playing with each other after school. That was until a couple of banks, which were up to no good, began to take over many a property in our neighborhood. My owner’s father, our grandad, got in a fight and we got scared, and we all moved to Innsbruck to get some respite.”

-“I think I get-”

-“But theyfought and argued every day, until one morning they packed their bags and simply went away, never to return. They left Austria and then went to Vladivostok, where they stayed and ended up living.”

-“I think you can sto-”

-“Grey left, and it was bad. I was left alone with my older brother who was nothing but an annoying jerk. He loved exercising, and so got really buff in just a few months after and I not sure how to win over him without fight-”

-“STOP! Stop before I go crazy from just being with you two! I need some sleep right now, okay? And if you want to join me tomorrow, I think it’s best that you all go to sleep, too!”

Before Trey could reply, Sam slammed the guest room’s door, leaving the bewildered husky outside. He switched the lights off and went straight to bed. The room was dimly lit by the crescent moon that reared itself just over the horizon, rising even further as midnight approached.

[“Good morning, this is your captain speaking. We are now 5 minutes away from our destination. Please prepare yourselves as we are now opening the hatch doors.”]

The intercom gave out a low long buzz before finally ending with a short clicking sound of the device deactivating.

“Just send my stuff to the manor. Don’t drop them, some are pretty valuable!” Shouted Karl at the nearby radio.

[“Okay sir. I’ll tell the ground personnel.”]

A German Shepherd was wearing a pair of goggles while being securely strapped onto a 4x4 buggy at the back end of the plane’s compartment. Nobody else was inside - it was filled with some of his personal items and supplies. A red signal light flashed as the cargo door swung open. At that moment a strong wind started blowing into the plane in gusts, messing up the dog’s fur and making his tongue flap out of his mouth.

Karl started the engine of the 4x4, but the loud hum was overpowered by the howling wind. He leaned forward, anticipating the final signal for him to go.

He shook off the thought of his friend getting a bit duller than usual. He revved the engine one more time just as the green light flashed from the lamp and the dog flew off the back of the plane, on a free falling buggy.

...

Five o’clock in the morning, Karl was free-falling several thousand feet in the sky above the sleeping town of Horbranz. Several people were up, preparing for their respective jobs as evidenced by several houses that had the lights lit on already, despite the early time.The vehicle eventually reached the correct height and speed. A short pop was be heard as the parachutes were activated. The dog braced for the strong jerk that always accompanied that deployment. The complex jumble of wires untangled and tensioned, the huge rectangular piece of nylon cloth started catching air, slowing down the descent of the buggy.

The feeling of adrenaline rushed through the dog after the violent tug by the parachute on the vehicle. A couple of wires for steering were soon adjusted, until it aligned correctly with the hill at the distance. As the ground rapidly approached Karl, he pushed on the gas, preparing the vehicle for impact.

The wheels started spinning, rapidly, as he was only a couple of feet away from the ground. A loud thud, click and screech alarmed everyone around of the buggy landing and the parachute detaching. The German Shepherd steered the 4x4 down the hill, towards a huge manor a few kilometers in front of him, while the moon floated right above.

---

Early in the morning at Innsbruck, two dogs were dragging a sleepy man and a husky to a recently rented vehicle.

“Grey, could you, please, stop dragging me? I need a bit more sleep, ju-u-ust 10 more minutes. I haven’t had time to sleep after working my brain out of me for most of my-y-y-y week.”

“This is your chance for relaxation! Just imagine: huge pools, bouncy beds and good food.” The husky started to drool over the thought of going to the resort, especially the food.

“Isn’t that basically the only thing you think about, food? And, you haven’t even been in that hotel. How could you even be that excited?”

Trey rubbed his strained wrists after receiving a long grueling tug from his brother. He stood up from his bed and started packing some stuff into a backpack. He brought several books, a change in case it got too cold, given the particularly unstable weather at that time of the year, and some of other stuff that might be helpful like his small first aid kit and basic tool kit.

“Oooh, what’s that?” Grey asked, taking one of the pen-like tools inside the tool kit that Trey took out. A silver pen with a single round metallic button on one side.

“Don’t press that!!! That’s a prototype laser plasma cutter! You don’t want to cut of your tail, right?” Trey panicked as his brother was about to press the button of the device. It could create a narrow beam of superheated laser induced plasma. It capable of cutting through almost anything - even a short burst from that tool could give anyone a severe burn - so that was definitely not something anyone would have trusted Grey to operate.

Trey took the torch away from Grey’s paw and placed it into the collar pocket. He grabbed the rest of his stuff and placed them into the bag. Carrying the bag, Trey pulled his brother out of his room and locked it with a warning - “I don’t want you to touch anything in there, I might have occasionally misplaced some of my gadgets even though I try to keep them as organized as possible.”

Grey nodded, still grinning despite the fact that he was about to get some burns if he had actually pressed the button. His excitement overpowered any sense of fear or pressure. “Okay! You’re done, right? Let’s go! Sam is currently waking Brunolf up in the other guest room. I think he was laughing a while ago while making some kind of weird concoction in the kitchen. He’s kinda scary, he said something about making an art-attack-express-oh? There was some kind of black goo in that flask he was brewing.”

Trey gave his brother a puzzled look and then shrugged away the thought of Sam actually making a mess out of the kitchen. At least, he hoped that his brother was exaggerating.

The two reached the front door of the house, where they were greeted by the smiling doberman and jittering Dmitri, who was still holding a mug of coffee and keys for the rented car, that has just arrived.

A feeling of regret crept into Trey’s mind as he started realizing that Dmitri will be driving them - someone who had just been spiked with a huge dose of caffeine. Trey nervously placed his bag into the trunk of the car alongside with thee other three that were already inside, tightly squeezed inside the compartment.

With all the packing coming to an end, the two huskies jumped onto the back seat of the car, as Dmitri started the engine and Sam got inside as well.

“Okay, so Brunolf will obviously be driving us to Horbranz, since he’s the one with the license in here. I’ll be navigating. You two there... Just sit back and sleep, I think? Don’t be chaotic back there.”

Sam took out a map of Austria, the one he bought while waiting for Grey to get some snacks at the tram station the day before. He unfolded the map, revealing a couple of roads, rails and landmarks. After struggling through the huge sheet of paper, turning and folding the pages until he ran out of breath, Sam turned around:

A faint glow from the curtains illuminated the room. Al was lucky that his room was facing the west, at least the morning sun wouldn’t greet him with its intense beam of light. An ironically wonderful alarm awoken him from his peaceful slumber, giving him a good tune to remember for the rest of the day.

Al gave out a nice long yawn before stepping out of his comfy bed. He gave himself a bit of a stretch on his fours, before remembering that he was, in fact, back to being human after decades of being stuck in a dog’s body. He got on his feet and stretched up, hearing some of his vertebraes crack and feeling his muscles tensed as his arms reach up.

Al opened up the window revealing the beautiful view of the bay. Several boats were already out, with their owners doing some early morning fishing or simply just leisurely floating about the water. He then went into the bathroom to freshen up.

After taking a bath, brushing his teeth and changing into a more casual attire, Al left the room and went to the hotel’s restaurant for his breakfast.

~Ahh, such a relaxing feeling. I wish I could just live like this for eternity. But, I do have a mission to complete. Who knows, we might somehow get some money from the organization after this mission.~

Random thoughts on what he would do that day flashed in his mind. He could pretty much do anything in there, with everything charged to the company. That was when he remembered, he wasn’t really free at all. The so called big boss, whose name he still hasn’t found out, was going to be with him the whole day.

~”How could I forget that?! I should really start focusing on this mission.”~ he thought, erasing what little joyful thoughts he had in his mind. ~“I need to find a way inside the archives as soon as possible. I’ll also need to keep myself away from suspicion. I’ll just hope that that dog would not be too attentive and notice me.”~

He had reached the hotel lobby. The hotel employees wished him good morning every time he passed one. Several guests were heading towards their business. Some were checking out, some just arrived, while others were already starting their fun activities.

Al took a seat at the restaurant. He got a couple of hash browns, eggs, bacon and pancakes. They were having some kind of American themed breakfast that day, oddly coinciding with his arrival - a nice way to wish their guests a really happy morning.

He took a large chunk out of a pancake and gobbled it all down before grabbing his phone out of his pocket and dialling a number. The phone rang for a few seconds before a familiar voice answered him.

[“I see that you’re doing well there in the hotel. How was your night there? I think you got some expensive room over there.”] The voice paused for a moment, as he took another breath. [“Can you give me a slice of that stack of pancakes?”]

“Sorry, human turned dog turned human privileges. If you want to have some, you can probably turn yourself into a dog first.” Replied Al in a laughing voice.

“Even though it’s kinda tempting. I’d probably regret turning myself into a dog after having this breakfast. So, back to business. What do you want to talk about?”

“I just want to update you on some details I’ve acquired from yesterday’s snooping. I think I have found a way into the archives but there seems to be a problem with acquiring the access codes. We can’t just blast our way through 200 meters of water.”

“Underwater? That explains why I couldn’t track you in there for more than an hour.”

“Yes, and I might have another problem. The boss would be here and I don’t really know how to act.”

“Wouldn’t that be simple? Just act as formal, or slightly casual, as possible. He is your boss, after all?”

“Uhm... yes... about that... I forgot to tell you a teenie tiny detail about the boss.”

A long static filled the line. “And that is?”

”He is a dog.”

“WHAT!?”

---

A blue sedan drove down the ramp, exiting the motorway for Bregenz, Austria. The group had been travelling for 3 hours. They had a couple of stops while driving through the lengthy E60 and E43 highways, specifically for the toilet breaks and a heavy breakfast that they’ve skipped at home. After navigating through several circular ramps and the dizzying roundabouts, they have reached the suburbs, and then the industrial districts of the city.

The suburbs were particularly quiet, with most residents being either at school or at work at 9 in the morning. Several homeowners were busy with daily routines: mowing their lawns, cleaning their cars and picking up mail. A number of pets were seen playing around their yards or hanging out in groups near some kind of a clubhouse.

The husky brothers were, in fact, raised there in Bregenz, but they lived in the secluded hilly region on the east, far from the suburb at the western side.

They have passed right through the commercial area, filled with early opening businesses, and they were now driving along the lake. Several small recreational boats and yachts were spread around it surface, with their owners enjoying the early morning sun, while at a distance larger fishing vessels and ferries were slowly travelling across the lake.

Trey gave the sleeping Sam a quick shake. He learned that Sam wasn’t able to get a good night’s sleep after spending his night, seemingly, planning their trip. Sam was a bit stubborn - he didn’t budge and gave out nothing but a low groan. After some quick thinking, Trey got an idea on how to awaken the obstinate dog.

“Brunolf, Sam wouldn’t wake up. I have a plan. Don’t panic when you hear it.”

Dmitri was driving the car through some moderately heavy traffic. He stopped at the intersection and looked back at the husky. “What do you mean by ‘it’?.”

“You’ll know. Just want return a favor from my brother.”

Trey looked at his sleeping brother. Similarly to Sam, he got a bit too excited for sleep. After their short stop at a roadside restaurant for breakfast, they both immediately dozed off. ~Getting too excited was always bad for you, brother.~

Trey cracked his knuckles, gave himself a quick stretch and then prepared to start Sam’s personal alarm. Trey moved his fingers close to his brother’s belly and started tickling him. Initially, faint whimper was heard as Grey attempted to push his brother’s hands away, but eventually, Grey started to howl quietly.

~Huh, looks like he has gained some kind of immunity to tickles. Well, I’ll need to commence the secret tickling technique then...~“That didn’t seem to work, so how will you wake Sam u-”

A long loud howl filled the interior of the car, which trembled as Grey was attempting to escape the horrors that he has been facing right then. The car swerved off the lane, but Dmitri was able to regain control as soon as he realized that that was what Trey has told him about. The tickling continued and Sam’s seat shook from the commotion at the back. That, combined with the ear splitting noise, awakened the Doberman.

The two huskies at the back saw a flash of red - the doberman’s eyes were already burning in fury.

“Could you two stop doing that!? I need my sleep right now, you can start messing around when we reach the resort.”

“Well, we are here.” replied Trey, pointing at the large building a couple hundreds of meters ahead of them.

And I am back finally.... you guys have GOT to keep track of your tenses, heh.

Quote:

They have passed right through the commercial area, filled with early opening businesses,

Should be had, or what would be better, just drop it completely. It is not necessary for that sentence.

And yes, a few grammatical mistakes here and there.... if you want I can PM you specifics.

_________________My charactersEverybody has a story to tell. What's yours?

Thu Aug 08, 2013 7:37 pm

musclecar326

Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:30 pmPosts: 684

Re: Temporal Coincidences

I love the way this story is going. Though sometimes i get confused as to who is talking and who is thinking, since some sentences have no "Grey said" or other stuff like that near them. Though after reading it a second time I usually get it.

So let me guess, Sam is planning on making his way to the manor to convince Karl that he is the real "Sam". While the fake sam or Al is going to try and not be suspicious around Karl. Also I can almost see Grey and Trey causing some trouble at the resort in my head already.

Finally, doesn't Brey work at the very resort that they are currently arriving at? So that means that the three brothers are going to be together! That just spells major trouble, or problems already.

And yes, a few grammatical mistakes here and there.... if you want I can PM you specifics.

Sure!

musclecar326 Wrote:

I love the way this story is going. Though sometimes i get confused as to who is talking and who is thinking, since some sentences have no "Grey said" or other stuff like that near them. Though after reading it a second time I usually get it.

I guess we should increase those. XD Sorry about that.

Close enough. XD

File 3: Parallel Ways

[6-25 AM, Innsbruck]

The lazy gray cat was still sleeping in her bed, turning away instinctively from the light of the rising sun. That was when Jacob rushed into the room, turning on the alarm clock on his mobile phone. Luckily for him, Maria was not such a deep sleeper. However, saying that she liked such a treatment, would have been a blatant lie.

“Ja-jacob, could you at least try waking me up gently?”

“Sorry, no time for that. They’ve left the city twenty or so minutes ago.”

“Don’t worry, there are plenty of busses to catch, anyways.”

“The 7 AM one got cancelled, and the others will be too far behind. Don’t worry, I’ve got that problem solved for you already, and I just need you to do one thing.”

“Let me guess - wake up?”

“Exactly! I’ve ‘accidentally’” - Jacob said the last word with his fingers drawing quotes in the air - “overheard them going to the resort not so far away. And by plane, we can actually get there even faster than them!”

“And you’ve told that you can’t do the spying stuff. Okay.” - the cat stretched and got out of the bed - “I’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

The middle-aged man smiled and sat down in the chair, waiting for Maria to pack her belongings. With all the paperwork done in advance, getting to Horbranz would be as easy as going to the airport and taking the plane.

[8-05 AM, Hohenems-Dornbirn Airport]

Maria was sitting on the bags, waiting for Jacob to return the rented aircraft and looking around the small building of the airport. With its tiny runway, barely stretching beyond 600 meters, it was suitable for planes like their single-engine Cessna. Not flying anything like that before, Maria spent the whole flight excited and staring through the glass of the cabin onto the valley stretching beneath them.

“I’m afraid we have to change plans now - turns out, I’ve forgotten to get some cash before we left Innsbruck, so we only have enough for the bus. No taxi for us today” - the voice, even though it was faint, woke the gray cat up with its unexpectancy.

“You mean, our early lead makes no difference now?”

“Unless we’re lucky with the schedule.”

“And we’re not, right?”

Maria never heard an answer, but Jacob’s sad eyes answered the question better than any words. She took the small shoulder bag, leaving him the other two rolling ones and they left the airport building, heading towards an empty bus stop.

“Well, Maria, looks like now we have to alter the plan, don’t we?”

“Yes, step one - find an ATM and get some money.”

“I thought you’d want to wait for the bus first.” - he took a look on the timetable - “Which should come in half an hour, and I think there should be some at the station in Bregenz. We should arrive there 10 minutes before the commuter train leaves, and in 5 more minutes we will be at Lochau station.”

“And then?”

“Then we just walk around a kilometer along the lake to the resort, and if we see someone we need there - then we’re fine.”

“And if not?”

“Then we can just stay there, and think of the next step.”

“How that relates to our goal of not losing them, or not letting anyone capture 152C?”

“No idea. Anyway, there is no other place for them to go - that’s the closest and the biggest resort to the town of Horbranz, anyway.”

The cat looked at her colleague in disbelief, but realising, there was no other plan for them to follow. She quietly agreed with Jacob and started looking at the sky, watching the clouds float by her as there were no other means of entertainment around.

[9-30 AM, Lochau station]

“I really hope it’s the last train I’ll have to take in the next few months. I’m getting tired of the sound of metal wheels knocking at every single rail joint.”

“And what about going back to Innsbruck?”

“I’ll get a bus ticket. And let’s change the topic, if you don’t mind, please.”

“To which one?”

“No idea, actually. Just not the transport, okay? I am travelling too much lately.”

The two walked away from the platform, and turned left, towards the noticeable 5-story building of the hotel, painted mostly white with a bright red roof. Jacob said “Hello” to the couple of locals, as they approached the road crossing, but unlike as Maria expected, they didn’t stop there.

“Jacob, where are you going?! The hotel’s the other way!”

The man looked upon the cat with slight disbelief - “Do I really have to explain that to you? No one is supposed to see us, and if we stay there we will be spotted on the first morning! We will just rent a house across the road from it, so if someone leaves the hotel, we will know of that, and be able to follow.”

“And if the owner of the house across the road will not agree to do that?”

“He will. I know him for a lo-o-ong time. His name is Jacob Vogl.”

Maria stared back at Jacob, and nearly stumbled on the small step - “You have a house here?!”

“Why of course I do! Saving up for the retirement, you know.”

The two approached a small wooden summer house, and Jacob unlocked the door, letting the cat in.

---

A blue car left the hotel’s entrance, taken by the valet parking. Several bellhops started towing their baggage with the luggage carts. Upon entering the hotel lobby, the group was greeted by the hotel staff.

The lobby gave off a luxurious, vintage atmosphere. Huge chandeliers hung above white antique sofas and desks that were lining the edges of the room, along with a number of potted plants, paintings and sculptures. The floors were shined until a clear reflection of the ceiling could be seen and at some parts, and old carpets, that were still cleaned to be as bright as new covered the floor. It was a sight that would easily impress anyone who saw it.

The hotel lobby was fairly empty, since most of the guests were either sleeping in their rooms, having their breakfast in the restaurant or enjoying the morning sun outside. The group was escorted by their bellhop to the receptionist situated at one the end of the lobby.

“So Sam, are you really sure that you’re going to pay our stay here? I know this place is extremely expensive. Brey always talks about how much the food costs in this place.”

“I guess so... but we just met last night, and I’m still a bit uncomfortable about you paying for me too.”

~Don’t make it worse for yourself. Try to avoid making anyone uncomfortable or suspicious.~ “Don’t worry about it, I am not really paying anything here. My company is the one paying it.”

“You’re working?” Trey’s ears raised from the earlier uncomfortable position.“What do you do?”

~He is really attentive. Let’s see.~ “Uhm... it’s nothing special really. I ‘acquire’ the goods and materials that my company needs.” ~That didn’t come out right. Can I just throw myself out of the window right now.~

“Like logistics?”

“Yes. Exactly! I manage the company’s logistics.” ~That’s good. Now to divert their attention.~ “Oh good, we’re at the counter. I’ll just get the room. You can all just wait here.”

The doberman left the group, peeking back to check whether they were following or not. Luckily, they stayed on the spot and just continued talking about what to do in the hotel. He reached the front desk, tapping on the small bell sitting on top of the table. A man popped out of the counter and straightened his attire, prepared to entertain the guest.

“Good morning sir. Welcome to our fine hotel. How can I help you?” He said with a smile on his face.

“I would like to get a room.” Leaning on the counter, he continued. “I know you have those two bedroom executive suites right? I would like to get one of those.”

“You’re quite lucky sir. We still have one of those. One of our guests checked out late last night. I’ll have it ready for you in a few minutes.”

The receptionist went ahead and reserved the room through the desktop computer hidden below the dog’s view. After a few seconds of inputting data, the man looked back at the Sam and asked some of the required personal information for the reservation.“Can I have your name, sir? And also, what is your preferred method of payment?”

“It’s Samuel, Samuel Adams.” Sam took out his company card and placed it on the desk. The man gave him a strange look and continued inputting the data.

“Hmm, that’s rare. We have another guest with that exact name. He even used a similar card for payment.” He stopped keying in the data and looked at the dog. “We surely have some sort of secret Samuel meetings here, right?”

Shivers travelled down his spine as Sam heard the man’s statement. He usually stayed inside the manor when he travelled with Karl to this vacation spot. ~What does this impostor planning?~ he wondered.

“Oh look, sir. That’s the other Samuel Adams.”

A man was seen exiting the hotel’s restaurant. He walked straight to the pool area, not noticing neither the group nor the doberman.Sam overcame his urge to attack the man, in order to regain his body back. Doing it now couldn’t do him any good, or get him any advantage. All Sam could do was to follow the man and find a more sure way to get his body back.

~I don’t know how you did this to me or what you are planning to do, but I know that you’re not going to succeed in your plans. For I will not allow you to continue with your mission or whatever that is. I shall preva- ~

Sam internal monologue was interrupted by what he now considered as pure raw loud noise out of the gray’s husky mouth.

“Hey, Sam! Are you also paying for the food? Their breakfast buffet looks tasty!”

And now, because of reasons, I'm going to post a week of updates again Feel free to file complaints and corrections via this thread and PMs at any time.

File 4:Close Calls

“Ahh, that was a lovely breakfast. Even though I couldn’t taste as much as I did when I was a dog, it’s definitely better than the stuff we had to eat while we’ve been hiding.”

The man was walking along the pool’s edge, watching several tourists swimming and playing in the hotel’s pool. Several children, adults and even pets filled it, enjoying the mid morning sun.

~According to the message I’ve received, that German Shepherd ‘K’ will be arriving here at around 10. That’s just about 15 minutes away from now. I guess I could just take a short walk along the lake. It should be less people there.~

Al was looking at the lake’s shores, right across the pool that he was passing by. An empty recliner laid empty underneath one of the trees, perfectly shading it from the sun. He was about to jog towards it to claim the spot, but then bumped into something. A huge lump of dry towels fell down to the ground. It moved a bit, bulging at some places until a dog’s muzzle popped out from the pile.

“I’m terribly sorry about that. I didn’t see you from all of these towels I was carrying. I’m passing these to the guests... you can take some if you want.”

It was the moment when he realized that the dog was familiar. He had a black fur wrapping his head, in what looked like a mask. It was the dog he bumped into during the train ride. The dog that they later discovered was with 152C in the train.

All of Al’s thoughts on the matter stopped when the dog stood up and started picking up the towels. He was bigger and buffer than the other dog and his fur had no pattern, other than a dark strip of running down the back. This was clearly a different dog.

“Uhh, sir. Are you okay? You seem to have blanked out.” The husky was done picking up the towels. “I’m Brey by the way, work here as pool’s lifeguard. I need to go now, enjoy your stay here!”

“Thanks!” - Al quickly replied before the husky ran towards the other side of the pool area. It was weird for him - what were the chances of running into a set of siblings in such a short timespan, anyway? Who knew who will he run into next. The man watched the husky gave away the towels to the other guests, before returning to his post and putting on his lifeguard’s vest.

Al turned away looking at the lake that laid in front of him. It was then when he noticed something.

~Err... the seat’s been taken!!!~

---

After that quick yet bumpy ride from his landing spot to the Marksman Manor, located at Horbranz, just a few kilometers north of the shores of Lake Constance, Karl had a long warm soak at the master bathroom’s tub. He spent the rest of the early morning fixing the stuff he had brought with him in backpack and reviewing the updates that he received upon arrival.

Not noticing anything peculiar with the other divisions, German Shepherd continued to the manor’s dining area where he had a hot breakfast. A couple of local delicacies, several sausages and a hot drink later, Karl went to the manor’s front door, where transport was already waiting for him.

Karl entered the waiting limousine. It was a Dincoln MKT, a red crossover SUV that he had recently acquired. It was fuel efficient, high-tech and highly luxurious vehicle with an interior that could rival designer living rooms. Being his personal vehicle for the area, it had several amenities for dog’s comfort, like onboard computers that were cleverly hidden in the seats, surround sound system, his own mini fridge for drinks and snacks, and, of course, his favorite - the all glass panoramic sunroof. The car also has some of it’s own security features - modifications he had requested for his safety, which were strictly confidential.

Karl would have loved to drive the car himself, but these weren’t designed for dogs yet. Nevertheless, one of the Silver’s subsidiaries had acquired majority stake of Dincoln and the company had started development of a line of dog-friendly luxury vehicles.

He had done everything that was necessary for the company to run on its own for a few days. Finally, Karl could go on with his vacation. German Shepherd gave chauffeur the destination, the resort on the shore at Horbranz. A nod from the driver gave Karl the signal that he was about to start driving. Opening a small panel at one of the doors revealed a set of buttons with a variety of uses. It was probably the best part of the ride to the resort. Karl pushed the button, opening the sunroof. He immediately popped his head out, dodging a tree branch shortly after sticking it out.Recovering from the thrill, the German Shepherd got a lot more excited.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH!!!”

---

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHH!!!”

Several pillows flew off the sofa as a huge gray husky landed on it. Sam had just opened the door to the two bedroom executive suites - the rooms that were usually booked by families staying at this resort. These suites were located corner rooms of the hotel, with views of the lake in one side and the hills and farms in another. One room had a king sized bed while the other had two twin sized bed. The suite had it’s own bath complete with shower and a large bathtub. A huge mirror covered one wall nearly completely, several toiletries lined the counter, with some of them being able to make any hotel enthusiast beg for more. A dining room with its own bar and the living room completed the suite.

Of course, the living room was a complete mess, given the projectile that flew into it. The other three travellers just entered the room after looking around the dining area, watching the husky rolling around the fallen cushions.

“Okay... so before your brother over here messes up with the rest of the suite, I shall assign us to our respective rooms.”

Grey finally stopped rolling around and sat up, waiting for the doberman to tell them of their room assignments.

Sam cleared his throat. “So since both of you are brothers, then I guess both of you could stay in the master’s room. The one with the king sized bed-”

Trey never felt his inner organs quite literally twist in the least comfortable manner. His brother was squishing him, excited about their shared room.

“YEY!!! Go brothers! Woohoo!!! King sized bed, yeah! We can have games every night. And you could tell me about what happened to the both of you. And we could also have movie marathons! Then series marathons after that!”

“Sorry, that doesn’t even look right. And the notion of staying with Grey would negate any “pretty faces” easily.” replied Dmitri.

“He’s right. I’m sorry, Trey.” doberman gave the husky a quick grin. “Okay, back to the topic - me and Brunolf would be sharing the other room with the two twin beds. We’ll be calling room service in a little while. In the meantime, you could do anything you wa-”

Sam was getting a bit more irritated as he could never finish any of his sentences with the over excited and not yet tired husky being around. As soon as he mentioned ‘room service’, Grey dragged his brother towards the master’s room and got to the desk. He immediately took out the menu from one of the drawers and started listing food items in the small notepad. Trey was attempting to escape his brother’s chokehold, grabbing the bed frame.

~Perhaps it would be better to leave the two of them...~ Sam looked at Dmitri, who, as always, was sincerely amused by the events transpiring in the room. Using the fact that no one was paying attention, Sam walked away from the bedroom’s door.

At least, it distracted him from thinking of Karl and his body’s snatcher. Even though it was only for a while.

With Sam leaving the room while he still had time, and two huskies’ attention focused on either futile escape attempts or the heavily illustrated menu, Dmitri was getting slightly bored of what was going on in the room. He took one of the books that he borrowed from Trey for the trip, and soon was reading it, sitting on the bench next to the lake, hoping to finish it before leaving Austria and, hopefully, two huskies behind. Air was warm, the sky was clear, wind was barely noticeable - a perfect day to finally move from page number 64...

“Hey, Brunolf, don’t you mind me sitting here? I need some rest and fresh air” - Trey was right there, with his fur still messed up by his brother’s chokehold, looking around for anyone running towards them, and proving Dmitri the simple fact - that he chose a wrong time for being all alone.

“And how did you escape from Grey? He looked like he wanted you to choose something as well.”

“Told him that he can pick whatever he wants, and left Sam’s card number. It was he who told us that he would pay for everything, anyway... And most of the items on the menu I’ve seen at least seemed edible.”

“Let’s hope he won’t destroy the room completely in the process.”

“No, Sam’s still somewhere out there, and judging by his reply, he can do something terrible if it turns out that some walls are missing. And Grey is not that much strong or active, he just gets carried away sometimes, and the more excited he is - the more frequent this ‘sometimes’ is”

“Yes, I’ve kinda noticed that on the train. As well as the fact that orange soda is nice to distract him. Hey, by the way - is that only him who reacts that way to it, or it’s something that’s common for all of you?”

“All right, all right, I’ll change the topic, so I don’t have to see you blushing despite all that fur”.

Trey, happy to avoid that conversation, breathed out deeply, and the two were sitting calm for a few minutes, staring at the calm empty lake, thinking of what to actually say to each other.

“So, that Brey character, what about him? I can’t say Grey told me much about him, and it would be nice to know what to expect from him while meeting for the first time.”

“Hmm... Well, he’s not that emotional about meeting someone new, so you can not worry about your face. Just keep him at some distance, and you’ll be fine”

“Distance? Why?”

“Well, let me try to explain it in a simple way. Imagine - it’s a nice morning, you’re still kinda drowsy, but decided to wake up, and read something, like... “ - Trey took a quick look at the book that Dmitri was reading before huskie’s arrival - “Yes, that’s a nice one. So, you open it, turn over a few pages, start enjoying the narration, and...”

“A-a-and..?” - Dmitri stared at the dog, awaiting the continuation of the so-far-pleasant story.

“..And then he rushes in, grabs you by hand, and then forces you into running for the next two hours just because he thinks that ‘your lifestyle is totally wrong’ and that he is ‘just willing to help you’!”

“That doesn’t sound so terri--”

“And the last thing we want to happen to you here is you getting forced into a full two-day hike in the mountains!”

“Still not THAT bad, you know...”

“Oh, and coming back to my first phrase - Brey and Grey are different. But Brey walks faster than Grey. Believe me.”

“So... Not just a long slow walk, enjoying quietness and beauty of the nature around, yes?” - Dmitri asked in slightly quieter voice, and the husky nodded in response - “You know, now I wonder how he and “the growing pup” will meet”

“That’s one of the reasons I actually agreed to go there” - replied Trey, smirking.

“And what are the others? Finally having some nice rest outside the city?”

“What do you mean, “nice rest”? I’m not always thinking of work, you know! My life is not just lasers, computers, and papers to write and sign...”

“Lasers?! Well, now that sounds interesting!”

“You see? Well, there is that system we’re developing right now, and it ma--” - husky’s expression suddenly changed in fear, and he quickly looked around. - “Forget that I said anything!”“But you didn’t say anything!”

“Still forget it! I want to go back to work next Monday, you know.”

The two sat on the bench for a few minutes more, just looking quietly at the lake again.

“Hey, Brunolf, Trey, there you two are! I’ve nearly ran out of places to look for you! Let’s go back to the room, the food should be there any minute! Oh, and sorry for Trey - he was telling one of his boring stories about how he can’t say anything about his job, wasn’t he?” - Grey said, and pulled the two by their hands back towards the hotel building

---

Sam was at the balcony when the food arrived. He asked Grey to look for Trey and Dmitri, who he saw seating on the bench at the other side of the hotel’s territory. It, as well as most of surrounding area, was clearly seen from their room on second-to-last floor.Directly underneath the balcony, down at the ground level was the hotel’s swimming pool. Sam has been spying on his impersonator for less than an hour so far, only interrupted by the doorbell for a moment.

Initially, he just saw the man, walking along the lake’s edge for a few minutes. Then he moved closer to the poolside pacing around, clearly anxious about the arrival of Karl. The pool was getting quite empty as the time approached mid-day, and most of the vacationers were already starting to order their lunch in the restaurant, or staying under the shade of a small park beside the pool.Eventually, to Sam’s horror, Karl arrived. Just like the last time they’ve been here, he was slightly late. Momentarily they seemed to start talking - like nothing was wrong. Sam felt an urge to just jump off the balcony and somehow tackle the other “Sam” that way. But doing so would probably became the end of his weird story, since Karl was always guarded by someone when he went outside. Someone from those other divisions that Sam never even heard of.

The two were soon in the pool, apparently, enjoying each other’s company and some random talk. Playing some water frisbee, that they used as a warm-up for far more extreme sports they always did later in the afternoon. He planned to move closer to be able to listen to their conversations and learn the motives behind the switch.

“HEY SAM!! Trey and Brunolf are here! Do you still want to eat!? I can still have your share if not!”

“I’m coming!!! And if you dare touching my food, you’ll lose your tail!” Of course, before he could do anything about Karl and “other Sam”, he would need to remove that extra weight of acquaintances that was on him. He needed to keep them away from his target.

“Yep, looks like I am having seconds here! Yum yum!!!”

Sam barged into the living room from the balcony. The nice aroma, that was filling the air, reached his nostrils. “Did you know that they even have a potato peeler in the kitchenette?” - greeted him Grey.

~Maybe moving the plans to watch that doppelganger fail miserably at handling my friend to after lunch would be better for me!~

WE'REHALFWAYTHROUGHTHEARCHIVEANDJUSTAFEWHOURSPASSED?!!!

And I guess I can go back to being unproductive until Friday? Also comments on errors are really welcome, not to speak of more pleasant responses!

_________________Yes, that is about the best thing to write that I could think of.

Thu Aug 15, 2013 11:44 am

musclecar326

Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:30 pmPosts: 684

Re: Temporal Coincidences

I had slacked on reading like 5 updates, but now that i got around to it I really enjoyed this chapters. The plot or story is moving along very nicely, with just about everything that I thought of before reading. I wanna see how the real Sam confronts the fake sam and Karl. Also I'm still waiting for the meeting of the three brothers, and the following commotion.

Welcome back then, musclecar! Glad to see that we've failed to disappoint you! The next several updates should eventually give you what you've asked for here.

===File 6: Tension’s rising“Try to catch this one!” Al tossed the frisbee as high as he could. It was his first time he ever played frisbee as not the one who was catching it, due to being a dog for the lengthy time that he has been free. He never really liked the feeling of chasing the frisbee and hated it every time Rick tried to make him play it, when hiding in European towns.

It was only noon, but for Al it felt like he has whole 24 hours on doing nothing but playing with frisbee. That dog, to make matters worse, was hyperactive and didn’t seem to run out of any energy, always ready to play some more. His thoughts were interrupted by yet another splash of cool water.

“Hey Sam! You’re blanking out again. Did you even eat your breakfast?”

“Yes... I had it... I just guess that I didn’t have enough.”

“Okay, we’ll get you something later. But stop dragging yourself back to dreamland! It’s still early morning! We have the whole afternoon to spend your favorites! I’ve already booked that rocket powered water skis, some high pressure water jet packs and gliders.”

Al’s stomach twisted on the thought of what the dog was intending to do with those three things. He was sure it wasn’t anything normal, even after reading through Sam’s files.

“Yey!” - He tried to be as enthusiastic as possible, avoiding eye contact with the swimming german shepherd. The dog just raised his eyebrow a bit and continued with the game.

Al took the frisbee from the dog’s teeth and prepared to throw it again. Another toss, now angled slightly above the horizon. It flew off, curved to the left, towards the circular kiddie pool at the other end. A record in terms of all of his throws - at least he was improving.

At the other side of the pool, he could clearly see the dog attempting to claim the frisbee from the group of kids and pets, fighting over the shiny disk.

At last, he had some more time to think about the mission. It would be hard to just bust in. He didn’t want to be messy with the infiltration, like that last time. Who knew that exploding your way through a facility would NOT be the best plan, anyway? He needed something else.

Abducting the boss would probably not work. He surely had someone guarding him, even when he was with his “best friend”. He would need to search for another person. Entering the facility would be easy - Al already knew how to access it from above, most of the paths and a possible entrance to the fringe division.

The best possible way in, as he thought, would have been just acquiring that security access card to the fringe and archive divisions. Alas, he and his companion had neither the cards, nor the security codes that would have been required to make one. Something that would take another year to find.

Another year of waiting and being stuck in another temporary body.

And maintaining that “Sam” persona for a year would have been much worse than being just another pet dog for a decade. A sense of horror crawled into his mind that this plan would ultimately fail in the long run. They were too close to their goal to fail miserably, again.

That was when it struck him... the frisbee that was.

“Sam, you’re not paying attention! Again!” The german shepherd swam towards his floating friend, knocked out by frisbee he had thrown. “Oh, and are you okay?”

Al collected himself. Feeling that some water got stuck in his ear, he hopped it off. The tasted something like metal in his lips, and, after checking himself, he realized that his nose was bleeding from the impact. “Ay sink zath aym fine.”

“Hahaha!! You already got yourself injured during the warm-up!” The dog slapped Al at his back. Not expecting it, Al’s face slammed the pool’s waters. “Oh, I think you’ve gotten a bit weaker now. Don’t tell me you’re getting old that fast! Yea, we should probably take a break, before you change the pool water’s colour to fancy red.”

Being a bit more careful, Al climbed off the pool - with careful being “avoiding the dog at all costs”. Staying near this German Shepherd was more life threatening than the research institution of the 1980s! Was the dog expecting some more injuries? He seemed to be implying that already.

Al got himself a towel from one of the desks beside the pool. There was no sight of the lifeguard that he met a while ago. He wiped the water off, and wrapped himself in the towel.“Sam, do you wanna have lunch right now? You’ll need that energy for the afternoon. And given your ‘dead’ performance today, I might need to ask them to spike your food with lots of sugar.” The dog gave him a evil grin - like a wolf to his cornered prey.

Al gave the dog a quick nod then immediately ran for the showers, wishing to get away as quick as possible. To his relief, the showers for pets and humans were separated, meaning that at least there he could be completely safe. Relaxing, with hot water running down along his back, he couldn’t stop thinking about whether the dog was serious about spiking his food. At least, his life couldn’t be threatened by eating those... ~right?~

---

“Hey, look who we’ve got here having fun! not-Mister not-Samuel not-Adams, and some pretty-looking german shepherd! Looks like even they are enjoying this time together”

“Maria, we’ve just arrived, how can you be already bored? And who is that dog you’re talking about? Let me see!” - Jacob gently pushed Maria to the side of the window, and stared through it for a minute, trying to recognise any of the faces - “No, don’t think there is anyone important there. At least we’re safe from overworking right now”

“Not sure how everyone else will like that, though. I’m not against a small break, but I’m not in the mood for making up stunning reports. I doubt we can find anyone here who will do that for us”

Jacob, having nothing to say in reply, went to another room, leaving Maria to enjoy her looking at everything that happening outside. She didn’t regret doing that, laughing for a while after seeing “not-Sam” fall down into the large pool, but that was the end of her entertainment - the two soon left. Not willing to think of how that dog companion of his could be connected to the whole case, and if they played any role in the Dmitri’s decision to go with the other two huskies and a doberman, she looked back at the clock, that were hanging on the wall. They were quietly ticking by 12-30, reminding Maria that she had nothing to eat since they’ve left Innsbruck.

“Jacob! Do we have anything for lunch?”

“Not sure. Why don’t you look for something in the fridge?”

“I’ve already checked it when we’ve arrived, it’s as empty as our plans on how to continue with the mission”

“Then why don’t you go and get something for yourself?” - Jacob was getting already slightly annoyed with the cat he had to look after.

“What if they see me? Our cover will be blown, and we’ll fail at everything you can and can’t even imagine!” - the response was the sound of newspaper being folded, and put down on the table - “Everyone here thinks you’re local, so you won’t be suspicious!”

“And let me guess - you’re going to abuse that fact for the next few days?”

“Probably!” - she said, smiling, and waving goodbye to her slightly irritated colleague.

MARIAISNOTREALLYSUBTLE,HUH...

Well, that's another week coming to an end! Have a nice weekend (or what's left of it), and let Gecko meet you all next Tuesday.

_________________Yes, that is about the best thing to write that I could think of.

I'll be posting the updates until the next week. VEB's enjoying his pre-brainwashuniversity vacation. XD

File 8: Bursting in Excitement

Everyone else was in their rooms, preparing the things they would bring for the so called ‘pool party’ they were going to have. Grey was excited to get his frisbee, all the while Trey attempted to dissuade him from swimming just minutes just after having their heavy lunch. Dmitri was in the other room picking up some books, spares and his swimming trunks. And finally, Sam was still sitting on the table, lost deep in his thoughts.

He was staring blankly into the empty plates. He was trying to look for a different angle of the recent events. Why was his impostor here in the first place? Do they want something from Karl? If so, why did even need to go here and not just get Karl while they were still in the headquarters. They couldn’t have planned all of this, nobody knows of their plans to even go here except for the other. Was this really just a world twisted against him? A weird feeling was brewing inside him, a feeling of uncertainty for him and his friend.

“Hey are you feeling alright? You don’t look fine.” asked Dmitri, carrying a small sling bag for his clothes and a couple of books clamped underneath his arm.

~Oh look an escape opportunity. Just follow with it.~ Sam held his belly, and curled down as if somebody punched him in his stomach. He tried to look like he was in pain. “I-I think I ate something bad for me... Sorry, I can’t join you all today.”

“Aww... but you need to come. You’ll miss all the fun!” Grey just popped out of the kitchen, dragging his struggling brother behind him. Even if Trey was much taller than Grey, when Grey was determined, he could easily overpower anyone. “Trey even brought a frisbee and ball with him.”

Trey escaped his brother’s tight grip and readjusted his collar. Luckily he was able to lock his bag, before Grey rummaged it for his any other gadgets, which he often mistook as toys. “You know. You shouldn’t force him. He really looks like he’s in a bit of pain.” Trey moved a bit closer to the doberman. “Hey, do you want me to call the nurse? I think you should have that checked.”

“No need for that. I don’t think this is serious. I just need some rest and probably just some painkillers.”

“Oh sure. Luckily I’ve brought some painkillers with me and... I didn’t use it on my brother.” He looked at his brother just standing behind him. “He always injures himself.”

“Hey!”

“Okay, I won’t elaborate on those past stuff. Hey Brunolf, Grey. Could you bring Sam to his bed. I’ll just get the painkillers from my bag.” Trey left the kitchen and re-entered his bedroom. A number of locks being unlocked could be heard, clicking, in Trey’s attempt to not let his brother into his stuff.

The remaining two lifted Sam, carrying him into the other room. They laid him into the soft bed cushion. His body sunk a little bit into the cool bed. Trey entered the room, bringing with him a glass of water. He placed the tablets on the counter together with the glass. “Here’s your tablets. Just drink one every three hours. They’re pet safe so don’t worry about any allergic reactions.”

“Thanks guys. I hope you’ll have fun. Don’t worry about me.” Replied Sam, trying to appear as frail as possible. He grabbed a tablet and brought it down with the glass of water. “What time would you be back here?”

“If we were to follow Grey’s stomach, I think we’ll be back by 6 or 7 for dinner.” Replied Brunolf.

“Okay.”

The three left the room and went to the kitchen to get their things. They promptly left the suite, shouting goodbyes back at Sam before closing the door.

Sam spat the tablet to a piece of tissue paper and threw it at the trashbin. He didn’t want to get drowsy from the medicine. He waited 10 minutes, checking whether the three would return for something they forgot.

They didn’t return.

He brought out some of the stuff he had acquired, some basic tools that he might need for his “reconnaissance mission”. He had collected those tools during their stops at the train stations, most from his stop at Moscow. He took out a compact backpack out of his duffel bag and placed his tools inside it.

He got the pack and lifted it behind him. He went straight to the door, opening it ever so slightly, enough to check the hotel’s corridor for any people. He crawled out of the room, and started looking for his target, disappearing into the maze of this resort complex.

---

Al was perspiring in the middle of the restaurant. The restaurant was indeed crowded and hot food was being taken from the buffet table, but what made him sweat was the dog whispering to the waiter. He said something like ordering their favorite drinks, but the grin after saying that made him wonder whether the dog was attempting to kill him with this drink.

“Oh! That one! Yes, I would like to have that.” Al replied, attempting to appear as enthusiastic as possible. They were having the appetizers for now. He was having a salad while the dog was having some soup. He was still struggling to think of a way to learn the dog’s name without making it suspicious. The only clue he had with the name was ‘K’. An idea came to his mind. “Hey K., would you like me to get some sausages for starters?”

“Stop calling me K., just call me Karl like I’ve told you before. We’re not doing business here.” He raised an eyebrow clearly not amused. His expression immediately changed back to a more cheery one. “Grab me a plateful. And probably some cheese with it.”

~Yes! Finally got the name.~ He stood up and went ahead to one of the buffet tables. There were a number of cold cuts, cheese, bread, oysters and of course the sausages. He grabbed two plates from the counter below, to the dismay of the people behind him. He took some sausages and cheese for the dog, and cold cuts, oysters and sausages for him. He had never eaten oysters for a long time. Being a dog for most of his time, he learned that his body can’t handle that many oysters. Luckily he’s back to being human, he could eat as much as he wants.

He carried both plates back to the table and passed the other one to Karl, who was delighted with the smell of the lump of cured and smoked meat. Al, on the other hand, was already excited of his little treat. He squeezed a bit of lemon into it and savored the bit.

In just a couple of minutes, both of them cleared their respective plates clean of any traces of those appetizers. They went ahead and had their main course; they had several plates of pastas, steaks and meat loafs. They were eating so much that some people kept staring at them, amazed at their food intake. Al was able to handle much more food than usual, his body must have burnt through his breakfast over the frisbee game he had a while ago.

After clearing through the mains, they went ahead and had some desserts. Karl called on one the waiter and asked for their drinks to be followed up. Apparently, the order got mixed up in the counter. They were having their second set of desserts. Karl was having some tarts while Al was having cakes.

“I almost forgot about your drink. They always do that, right? I think they never believed that anyone could handle that drink.” The dog looked back at his companion. “But you could take it. You even loved it!”

Karl laughed, with Al joining in just not to make it awkward for the dog.

The waiter arrived with a glass filled with bubbling green and red liquid. There was a slice of lemon placed on top of it. It looks like it was dissolving into the “shake”. The green and red liquids are flowing inside the glass, like the fluids inside a lava lamp. The waiter grabbed the glass and slowly placed it on top of the table, right in front of Al. The waiter quickly backed away, still staring at the duo.

“Aren’t you going to drink that? You seem to be hesitating.”

Al snapped out of his long stare at the drink. It was still bubbling and fizzing. He couldn’t even tell whether it was a hot drink or a cold one.

“I’ll just finish this cake.” He took a bite out of his chocolate moist cake, another thing he hadn’t eaten for a while. He was still chewing the cake when he noticed the dog watching him attentively.

He looked back at his drink. It never seem to stop reacting, reacting to whatever was in there. “Did you add any secret ingredient there or something? It doesn’t seem to look normal.”

“You noticed! Yes. I asked them to add some Australian chilli peppers to the mix. I don’t think that would change it that much.”

Al ran out of cake. Now, he couldn’t escape his fate. Spilling the drink would just delay the problem. And not drinking it would make Karl suspicious. ~Who even adds peppers to drinks!?~ He looked back at the monster sitting on top of his table. He grabbed the glass, it felt cool to the touch. He moved it slightly closer to him and he was able to smell the concoction. It smelled sweet, like berries. These actually made it a bit more tempting to try the drink.

~It’s now or never.~

He raised the drink near his lips and closed his eyes.

~Maybe drinking this in one big gulp would help.~

He opened his mouth wide and let the drink flow in. It was also a bit fizzy and... oddly enough, sweet. The sweet taste blended in nicely with the other component, it was like candies dancing in his mouth. The liquid was cool to the mouth and he chugged the whole drink right in, just as if he was drinking a glass of orange juice.

“Ahh... it’s refreshing... as always.” He would probably say the same thing if he had that drink before.

“Nice! Now let’s wait for the best part!” The dog was more excited than before. His eyes locked at Al.

“What do you mean the best pa-” A rush of burning sensation flowed from his stomach up. It felt like somebody poured gasoline into his mouth and set it on fire. All of his muscles tensed on the blow he felt in his body, like his organs melting. A loud burst could be heard from inside the restaurant.

Sorry about the late posting. I am kinda sick and I wasn't able to work on reading the file first before posting it. I'll update it as soon as I get well.

File 8: Working Thoughts

It was a warm and sunny day. A nice day for a cool swim, after long hours of staring at line, charts and graphs. The sound of birds and trees in the wind filled the air instead of the low hum of the computer processors. Bright colors from the sprouting plants and flowers bordered the sidewalk unlike the plain white and black walls, silver linings and dark blue exteriors of the underwater laboratory.

Johanna Magnusson or simply Hannah was walking down a busy highway, wearing the tag given to her by a close friend consisting of the rings representing the CERN particle accelerator. She just came straight out of her over time in the lab. She usually sticked with the weekend day off, giving herself ample time to relax and exercise outside in the environment and not just in the confines of their dormitories.

Hannah was a Swedish Elkhound, a breed closely related to another more famous breed, the Norwegian Elkhound. Locally known as Jamthund, they have a similar look and build as their cousins with one clear difference. They have a more wolf-like appearance, with two black spikes of fur painted beneath their eyes. She had the typical fur colors of any regular swedish elkhound, white belly and dark gray to gray fur coat. But one thing did distinguish her from most other elkhounds, she had an education and a job.

Both of her parents were scientists specifically physicists working in the nearby European Laboratory for Nuclear Research, commonly known as CERN. Her family moved to Switzerland from Sweden a few years ago after her parents were both accepted as full time employees in CERN. Being adopted and raised in an family of academes, she was given a private tutor.

She got herself into a special scholarship for pets in Switzerland for her higher education. Wanting to follow her parents, she took up pure physics and minors in engineering. She applied to work for CERN after completing her degree and post-grad in record time. But due to several regulations in hiring within CERN, her application were placed on hold. Her father got hold of a friend working in the nearby Vesicstue Institute and got her in as a research intern.

While working as an intern in the institute, she had helped discover a number of stranger phenomena. This caught the eye of the current head of the institute, Dr. Lehrer. He took her into his fringe group, studying into the much exotic parts of physics, now as a full time researcher.

Oddly enough, her situation isn't that rare. Most of the pets, or in reality mostly dogs and just a few cats, in the institute were not accepted at academic positions. It was mainly due to a common prejudice in society that they’re just pets. Getting outsmarted by the pet would make a lot of people feel weird, and the thought of having a dachshund as a professor or high school teacher was kind of scary, for the dog.

Most of these pets flood into the doors of the Vesicstue Institute, a research institute which for some reason, readily accepts any pet with high credentials. When it was formed, it was met with harsh criticisms, mainly for their much lax rules on hiring pets and also their shady roots. In fact, nobody really remembered when this institute popped out, it was just there. And of course, there were also those rumours on the institute’s funding. A number of researchers speculate that their funding was from a military agency, others speculate that it comes from a corporation. There are even those who think that they could possibly be working for a powerful and secret international organization, like the ones you see in movies or hear from conspiracy theories.

~Ouch, my head hurts. You need to stop overthinking this. And stop listening to your research fellows about who that visitor was and why was he here. He’s none of your concern.~ Just like any other workplace, those kinds of rumors spread fast. A random visitor showing up out of nowhere. Such a high level official from the so called funding agency, visiting the institute with no clear reason or intent.

In the past few weeks, Hannah has been staying in various hotels around the Lake Constance. Both of her parents, internally known as the Particle Duo, were still busy on the discovery of Higgs Boson and were still in the process of determining whichever model it fits. This time around, she’s planning on staying in the more expensive one, splurging after finishing her most recent paper.

“Finally here!” She stopped for a breather just outside of the huge imposing structure. Towering over most structures in the area, it was one of the best known resorts in the area. Entering the hotel made her feel like she was in heaven. She really loved the tranquility of the rooms, the facilities in the resort and most especially the beds, which gives her the feeling of melting all of her stress away.

She headed straight for the receptionist, anxious about whether they still have any rooms left when something caught the corner of her eye. Someone who she just saw yesterday, while walking along one of the tubeways. She approached him slowly, creeping closer and closer while her target was facing away from her, until he was just an arm’s length away.

A quick slap on the back sent him flying forwards in shock.

“Hey Trey! How are you doing?”

---

Trey was used to getting tackled, given his hyperactive younger brother and athletic older brother. He wasn’t really that strong, but he can handle them. The problem with this case was the unexpectedness of that backslap. He was now down on the cool glossy limestone tiles, with a little bit of drool spilling out of his mouth.

“Trey...” Said a familiar voice. He was pondering on whether he was stuck in a dream or if he was in the real world.

“He looks kinda funny.” He could probably chain Grey to the post for this. Clearly, he was in the real world.

Trey opened his eyes, he was laying next to his pack. It was luckily filled with change and towels, which absorbed most of his impact of his trip. He didn’t really get anything worse than a case of an hour’s worth of headache.

“Trey, are you alright? You really made us worry there.” Hannah was looking at him, clearly concerned about him. She helped him stand up and Brunolf helped bring him to the nearby sofa. The small crowd which formed around them promptly returned to whatever they were doing, like nothing really happened.

“I’m alright, I guess. Don’t worry about me.” Trey received an ice pack from one of the hotel’s attendant, which he placed on his forehead. It relieved most of the pain, and at least the bruise won’t be visible. “I might just need to check whether I can still remember how to do physics or at least lasers...”

“Let’s see... what is the wavelength of your favorite visible light laser?” Looking intently at the husky.

“Pi nanometers?” … “Don’t slap my back!”

Hannah’s hand was just an inch away from Trey’s back when she realized to stop her hand. She got that habit from her natural brother, whom she met just a few years ago when she moved to Switzerland. Sadly, he moved to New York just a month ago. “Sorry about that, I just got used to doing it when my brother gives out jokes.”

“So, what are you doing here in this resort? Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Ehem, we’re still here, you know...” Interrupted Grey, clearly bored from the conversation occurring in front of him. He grabbed Trey from his arm and tried to drag him towards the pool area. “Can we go and swim now?”

“Stop grabbing that arm, it’s still a bit painful from my fall.” He noticed that Brunolf wasn’t with them. He was walking towards the restroom right beside the restaurant. “Hey, Grey. Brunolf seems to be buying some drinks. You can follow him over there.” Pointing at the dog’s travelling companion, still a few steps away from the other side of the lobby.

Grey left the two, running after Brunolf. The man, noticing the husky running towards him, tried to evade the dog but ultimately failed. He was dragged into the restaurant by the excited dog, to the amusement of the other guests.

“Did you forget about what I told you the other day during lunch? I am currently resort hopping around the lake during my breaks in the past few months.”

“Oh, right! I can get quite forgetful sometimes...” Trey replied. He was unsure about what happened that other day, but he wasn’t paying much attention to their conversation then. Then it struck him. “Was this the hotel you’ve talked about that other day? The one with the white husky?”

“Yes, that one. I remembered telling you about that and how he attempted to join me in the my laps around the pool.” She looked at Trey, slightly suspicious about him bringing this up. “Why? Is there something bothering you about it?”

“Well...” He rubbed his paws together. “I think I forgot to tell you that he is actually my elder brother.”

Would that reference to a Dachshund professor have anything to do with Karlos and his fic?

So I wonder if this is a love interest or something... maybe a brother fighting brother deal?

So many updates! You two like to keep on schedule. I wonder how large your buffer is now.

Why didn't I remember that! XD It wasn't an intentional reference.Err... about the buffer... we're kinda in a losing game right now. XD

File 9: Waiting for the End

Karl was walking with ‘Sam’ in the lobby, heading towards the lakeside. He had a number of things in his mind. One of them was the clearly weird Sam he was currently with. Some of his actions don’t match up. His more hesitant nature, his inattentiveness, the mannerisms and the lack of any enthusiasm around him. It was making him confused more than ever. He had never been this distant to him, probably even more distant than that fateful night.

Before they left the restaurant, Sam had a number of desserts to rid his mouth of the spiciness, something that he never did before. Usually he will just have a cup of milk and that would already suffice. He received information from the intel branch, nothing was out of the ordinary, nothing that would say that he was an impostor, or worse, changed allegiances.

“Hey Sam, I have prepared the jet skis and water rockets. We could start with your favorite sports!” Karl tried to be as enthusiastic as possible. Nothing from Sam really suggested an equally enthusiastic response.

“Could we stick to something much more... relaxing? I don’t want to send myself to my doom at this point in time.” The man paused for a moment, looking a bit panicky from Karl’s perspective. “I mean I don’t want to hurl while doing those sports, right?”

“I guess you could say that. So what do you want to do?”

Sam was clearly distracted, looking at a small crowd of pets seated in one of the sofa. Karl could see him smile a bit before facing back at him. He was back with the inattentiveness.

“Ehem...”

“Oh, sorry. What was that again?”

Karl had an urge to push his friend into the pool, his behavior was killing him. “I was asking if you want to do something else?”

A short pause followed. “How about fishing? We can go fishing in one of those tourist boats or if you want, we could just fish by the docks?” Finishing his sentence with a seemingly innocent grin.

“Okay, okay... let’s just go fishing.” Karl gave off a sigh, if this was supposed to be a relaxing vacation for him, it was not working at all. “Sam, I’ll just get my fishing lines from my stuff. I will be right back in a few minutes.”

“Okay, don’t lose yourself in the hotel.” Replied Sam, while waving at Karl.

If only he could acquire some sort of truth serum, maybe that would tell him whether he was definitely Sam or not. He went towards the locker area where he stored his fishing equipment. He took out the box from the locker and went to one of the corners of the room.

Putting down the box, he took out his cell phone, checking the surroundings for any uninvited guests. No one else was inside. He activated the phone and went to his contacts. Scanning at the address list he finally found what he needed.

The phone rung several times before somebody answered it.

[“Hello, K. How can I help you?”]

“Doc, this might be slightly weird for me to ask from you. But, I might have a problem, a problem concerning Sam.”

[“And what would that be?”] His voice was clearly intrigued by the dog’s request.

“I have reason to believe that Sam is acting... out of the norm. He visited your office before going here. Do you happen to develop a truth serum? Just kidding. Have you noticed anything odd about him?”

[“Odd? He just tried accessing some of the more confidential files on the 152 project. I didn’t give him any access for security reasons.”]

“Good. I have doubts about his identity. Could we discuss about it... later? I’ll visit you in your office. I haven’t been in there for quite some time.”

[“I’ll prepare myself then. Do you want any tea prepared in particular? I could have them ready when you come.”]

A creak from the door of the locker room could be heard from his position. Just at the right time.

“Probably just some iced tea. I don’t want to drink some hot tea at night.”

[“Okay, I’ll have that prepared. Bye K.”]

“Bye, Doc.”

Karl ended the call and placed his phone back into his collar pocket. At least he had a plan right now. He just needed to restrain himself from strangling Sam until night comes.

“Now... what should I do next?”

---

He was carrying a fruit shake in one hand and dragging a struggling man in another. Grey was just successful at forcing Brunolf into buying him a drink. He was just trying to get himself into the toilet. But pleads for relief was just shunned away by the excited husky.

“We should go to the pool right now! I don’t want to leave my brother waiting there.” Said Grey with the enthusiasm of a child seeing or even just hearing an ice cream truck. “I hope he is still in the pool area!”

“Grey, I haven’t been to the toilet since morning. Could you release me, and I’ll just catch up with you guys?” He had been attempting to gain any traction on the floor, but the floor was smooth and any attempts on standing would be met by a horizontal force from the husky. They were watched by several bystanders, amused and occasionally concerned at the two.

They eventually reach the other two who are still seated on the sofas, apparently talking about his brother Brey. Trey was no longer holding the cold compress on his forehead, but was rather looking down at the floor with his fingers together.

“My brother talked about you once. He remembered seeing you in the resort.” Said Trey, his sentences break every now and then. “I honestly forgot to tell you about it...”

“It’s okay. I guess it would be weird for you to just tell me about that.” Replied Hannah, to Trey’s apparent delight. Trey was about to say something, but was cut off by his brother.

“Hey Trey! Can we go now? I want to go to the pool already!” Grey got a quick glare from his brother, who immediately looked back at his friend.

“Hannah, my brother wants us to go to the swimming pool already. His enthusiasm is really hard to control so I think it would be best for us to go ahead.” Trey stood up from the sofa waving back at Hannah while continuing his glare at his brother. Grey was just smiling although he was already getting a bit scared, he rarely sees his brother stare at him like that. Brunolf was able to regain his posture, still pondering on whether he would try to run towards the restroom or just go with the flow until they reach the pool.

“I can go with you.” Said Hannah, who was already following the group. “I was also planning on swimming this afternoon.”

“But don’t you do laps? Like exercise swim not leisure swim?” The husky was smiling. Trying to avoid any chance of actually physically exerting himself, to the amusement of his brother.

Well, almost everything amused Grey, anything could excite him easily, to the horror of everyone around him. Of course, nothing he does was ever deadly or life threatening, but the thought of getting smothered was always enough to make them hide. He did occasionally created problems that were not of a similar nature. “You know he really needs some exercise. I bet you could easily make him join you in your la-”

In a twisted turn of events, it was Trey who tackled his brother. He was already turning a bit red, blushing underneath his thick fur. “Don’t listen to him. He really gets a bit delusional sometimes.”

Grey’s snout was clamped shut by his brother’s arms. He couldn’t even open his mouth to just even stick his tongue out. None of his grumbles could be understood by anyone around of them.

“Hannah, well I guess you can join us. But I must probably warn you about something.” Continued Trey, still overpowering his menace of a brother.

“And what would that be?” She raised one of her eyebrows. Then, she paused, just staring just above her friend. Trey was about to answer her question but her eyes were just fixed to something behind him. He looked back and saw a set of white furry legs.

“Yey!” Shouted Grey, like everytime he gets a chance to get a can of soda, after Brunolf tried to control the soda supply.

“Trey, Grey, what are you two doing down there? And it seems one of you have this fine friend over here, are you going to introduce me to her?” Said the huskies’ brother. The eldest and most active in the family to the joy of Grey and the horror of Trey.

ALWAYSCALLADOCTORWHENYOUFEELSICK

Thanks for reading, next update would be posted on Tuesday. Hopefully... on time. XD

Sam was in a dark, cold and wet place. Short beams of sunlight pass through the gaps in the wood panels above him. Behind him, groups of people and pets swim along the lake side, enjoying the mid afternoon sun. A number of small sailboats glide through the water along with several much smaller jet skis.

Jet skis, he would have been with Karl riding those jet skis if he was still in his body. Those with some water jet packs would have been a much better way than spending the whole afternoon like this. And by this, he was referring to just plain old fishing.

Sam was underneath the dock, his smell concealed by the stagnant water around him along with those sticky slimy grime. Green slime which has been messing with his fur making it much more uncomfortable, if only he had something like a wet suit it would be better.

The impostor along with Karl are seated just a few feet above him. Even though he cannot see his friend, he could hear from the tone of his voice that he was not amused at all. Karl just came back from getting some more bait. They had that special bait that they used for their fishing, something that obviously only they know. The other ‘Sam’ failed to get the right one, increasing Karl’s suspicions.

Karl wouldn’t really believe that somebody somehow switched the minds of people. For one, no organization was known to possess that kind of capability, not to mention the amount of money and time needed to be invested on those ventures. In fact if any organization could do it, it would be Silverore, but the thought of somebody from the inside orchestrating this and the fact that worldwide experiments are heavily regulated sometime near the end of the cold war buried this possibility deep in his mind.

The only clue that he had on the perpetrators was that they were at least two, one dog, Al, and one man, Rick. And with the current body switch, there were two men. They seem to be interested with Karl for some reason, although these reasons were still left unclear to him. He has never seen the other accomplice anywhere near them which probably meant that he was handling something else.

Nothing exciting was happening right now, none of them were actually trying to start a conversation. He could practically go join the others in the pool and not miss anything important happening here. That was until Karl’s line caught something.

“Sam, help me with this. It’s kinda strong!” Karl shouted, catching the attention of Al and some other nearby fishers. The man went close to the dog, slightly panicking.

“What shall I do? Do I grab the line?” Sam underneath the dock had an urge to laugh, suppressing it before he could give away himself to the the two above him. Choosing fishing over extreme sports would seem like a good idea, if you do know how to fish.

“Grab it quick and help me pull, I’m already slipping off the docks!”

The man quickly grabbed the fishing rod. Using the traction on his shoes, he added some more weight to the pull stopping Karl from slipping off. Karl started reeling in the fish, it was getting closer and closer to the shore.

“Stop pulling too hard! You know how this works, the line might-” The sound of a snap echoed through the dock. The two were sent tumbling backwards to the dock, ending up in weird position. “-break.”

Karl stood up and dusted himself off. He grabbed the rod and quickly helped ‘Sam’ to his feet. “I’ll just grab a new line. Just wait here.” Karl left the docks, leaving the man there. He gave off a fairly loud sigh before leaving, something that Sam was able to hear from underneath.

Al as soon as Karl was out of sight took out his phone and dialled a number. He waited for a bit before he said ‘Hello’. Sam moved a bit closer to directly underneath Al, interested at what the conversation was and to whom he was talking to.

“Rick, I have good news. I think I have found a way to get us into the archives.”

~Archives? Wait, is he referring to the research archives? What does he want from that place?~

“How? Do you remember those dogs that I met in the facility. They’re here in the resort. We can drug one of them and gain access into that part of the institute.”

~Dogs? Institute? Wait a minute! He was staring at Trey and his friend a while ago, does this mean that... Trey, that nerdy dog, works in the institute, the institute which is the research branch of the organization!~

“Okay, I’ll meet you there in the back edge of the resort later this night. I’ll lure the dog there and you can bring the equipment for the infiltration. I think you know what to bring.”

~I need to follow these two. At least they’re not involving Karl into this. What a relief.~

“I’ll go before that dog returns. Goodbye for now.” The man swiftly locked his phone and placed it back into his pocket. He checked the other end of the dock, the dog was still not there. He sat down at the edge of the dock holding his fishing line, slouching his back while trying to relax.

Sam was already waiting for this long boring afternoon to end. Hoping that the events that will transpire later this night will actually be more exciting for him. At least, he can still get a dose of excitement he gravely deserves.

He didn’t really need to wait for long. A fish got caught in Al’s line making him go into panic mode, trying his best to reel the fish in. Sam would have a whole afternoon’s worth of fishing failures to entertain him for the rest of the day.

---

Grey jumped back on his paws, breaking away from the startled brother’s hold, and rushed towards Brey in excitement. Despite what most expected after the evening they arrived to Innsbruck, this meeting didn’t end up in two spots of differently shaded fur, rolling around the tiled pool area. Brey stood there, smiling at the impressed guests, while Grey was still expecting for them to fall down.“You can let me go, we’re not falling anytime soon.”

“Wow, you’re stronger than I remember” - Grey replied, coming back to his seat.

“I’ve told you all already, and will repeat it again - I am just a...”

“Growing dog, I know. Don’t worry, brother, we still remember all of your excuses!” - White-coloured husky replied, unintentionally saving Brunolf for another powerful tackle - “But, still, what about a small introduction? There are plenty of new faces here, you know...”

“Well, that man over there is Brunolf, and if you have anything to say about Grey coming, address it to him, because he is responsible for that” - black-and-gray husky pointed at the man, who was using the moment of distraction to leave - “And this here is Hannah. I thought you knew each other already, though?”

“It’s pleasure to meet such a nice lady over, and over and over again” - replied Brey, trying to act - much to Trey’s annoyance - as gentle and sophisticated as possible - “And, once again, what are you all doing here? No one warned me of the family reunion day!”“Can’t say I expected to see Grey last night as well... Well, basically there is one dog we know, who came here with Brunolf and decided that it would be fun for all of us to meet here!” ~And by the looks of it, he knew what’s going to happen, and avoided the meeting by all costs. Can’t blame him for that, though, knowing that these two could greet each other with whichever weird game they come up with, like~

“Fight!” - exclaimed two hyperactive brothers, and a moment later the two, looking like smudged spots of fur to everyone else, collided into each other in the jump, and began rolling around the pool area, trying to overpower each other. Much to Trey’s disappointment, this didn’t keep them busy, as Brey obviously became strong enough to fight off Grey, and soon he was keeping the latter on the ground, childishly smiling and looking at slightly amused Hannah.

“Okay, okay, you won! Let me go now!”

“Aah, yes, for sure” - Brey released his hold, letting the middle brother to get back on his paws - “So, where were we, once aga--” - Unfinished question ended up on the tiles again, alongside with the elder of the Bachs brother, after a surprise attack from Grey“That’ for not falling the first time!” - he said in a laughing voice, while jumping back again, not willing to be held on the floor again. Brey stood up again, sighed, and shook the water off his fur.

“Well, kids will always be kids... Right, brother?” - he asked Trey.

~Really? I have to answer that?~ - he asked himself. Much to his delight, Brunolf came back, leaving the “witty” question unanswered forever.

“I hope I didn’t miss anything?”

“No, just the two huskies rolling around, trying to impress us.”

“Oh, just like you and Grey yesterday?” - that was the moment when Trey wanted to hold Brunolf’s mouth shut as he did with Grey. - “Oh, that was hilarious, before Sam stopped you two! What a pity I missed that... Who won, by the way?”

“Brey. Who else did you expect? Let’s change the topic now, really?”

“Yes! Let’s change it to ‘It’s time to go to the pool itself and play at last!’”

“Oh, Grey, you really didn’t change at all... Can’t say it’s a bad idea! Let’s go!!!” - exclaimed Brey, and two dogs splashed into the pool almost simultaneously. Soon they were joined by Hannah, happy to add some variety to her regular swimming routine, and unwilling Trey, who got literally dragged into the water by two pairs of paws. Brunolf kept sitting on the tiles, out of reach for everyone in the pool, rummaging through the backpack, looking for something.

“Hey, Brunolf, are you really going to sit there? It’s bo-o-oring!”

“No, Grey, thanks. I’m not into water games, you know. I guess I’ll just lie under the sun for a while with some nice book of Trey’s”Grey switched his attention to Trey - “Hey, why did you have to infect him with your boringness?”

“I’m not responsible for that, he didn’t resist much! Well, what was that game you wanted to play, anyway? Please, don’t tell me the objective is to drown the opponent?”

VEB is watching all of us (me suffer) through his phone... I give you the permission to spam his PM! *evil laughter*

File 11: Pool Fool

It was obviously hard to say that Trey was a huge fan of the whole “playing in the pool” idea, but with Brunolf staying “ashore”, smiling and reading, he was left in minority. At least Hannah decided to stay in one team with him, that was heart-warming. Even despite the fact that she would never be able to outbalance the overactive husky and his elder sports-crazy brother. At least seeing them bumping into each other, when they were rushing after the ball at the same time was fun. Especially their looks after that. That’s high-quality entertainment, indeed. ~Oh, yea, where’s that ball by the way? I shouldn’t lose track of it!~ - the next moment the ball powerfully crashed into the water, sending countless drips of water all around, including Trey’s eyes - that was his second least favourite part of the game. The least favourite was the one where two overexcited brothers from a different team were rushing towards him, barely noticing that Trey has caught it already, and threw it to Hannah.

The new splash of water was powerful enough for some of the drips even to reach Brunolf, to which he responded by discontent murmuring through the sleep. It was probably the time to remind him about the possibility to get sunburnt... ~Nah, he will figure that out. He seems to be sensible so far.~

Another weird thing about the ball was how different it behaved with everyone. Brey, without a doubt, masterfully controlled, getting to it just on time, and sending in trajectories even Trey wouldn’t have thought were possible. Hannah, being just a casual player, did completely nothing out of order. Trey himself was struggling to throw it to Hannah when needed, and it took him awhile to get used to the speed at which they should meet at the same point in space, usually leading to Trey getting hit with the above-mentioned ball. Grey was just happy to play with it, but despite that, the ball seemed trying to evade him at all costs. And not without a reasoning, given how dedicated to the game Grey became. Probably, it was only the solid inside chamber of the ball that saved it from being ruined by husky’s teeth a couple of times through the game.

The four finally decided to make a break, two and a half hours into the game. Grey’s suggestion on forgetting about the schedule and going to eat was short-lived, as even Brey declined it (much to Grey’s disappointment), and the meals were limited to drinks in the cafe. Hannah was slightly concerned about Brunolf, who was still pretty much doing nothing other than sleeping, with his face covered with nearly finished book of Trey’s. She was worried for the man getting bored with waiting for the others to play, and getting sunburnt in the process, but the three huskies convinced her that he was sensible enough to know what he is actually doing, and that waking him up would actually make everything only worse. Trey retold her the morning when they were leaving for the resort, and soon the Elkhound agreed to leave Brunolf alone.

The time was around 5 PM, when they have finished with the rest (and convincing Brey that a 10-minute rest was not enough), and decided to get back into the pool. Hannah and Brey agreed on a quick race of 10 laps as a warm-up, and Grey just randomly joined them somewhere in the middle of it. Trey, finally getting a short moment of relaxation, was floating on his back, with eyes closed, listening to the people slowly gathering their belongings, and his brother shouting something to each other. ~Well, at least now Grey won’t have enough energy to break anything in the room~ - he tried to convince himself, as the race - evidenced by happy exclamations of Hannah’s - was over.

~He’s definitely just trying to show off. Nothing else. He always behaved like that when trying to impress someone, and it only became worse since the last time we’ve met. I wonder how this still works for him? How can someone be charmed by him? What is he even talking to with everyone? I don’t know much dogs, or even people who would willingly listen to him constantly talking about trainings, and how you lack them, etc, etc...~

“Hey, Trey, wanna join us? We decided to make a few more laps around the pool before going back!”

“Can I say ‘No’?”

“Hahah, nice one, brother! Come on, it will be beneficial to you! Just think of how much you lack the acti--”

“Okay, okay, I’m coming then!” - Trey opened his eyes, and slightly reluctantly swam towards the others, who were waiting for him.

---

Hannah was exhausted from her swim. From the whole day’s worth of playing fetch and catch to doing several laps around the pool, she felt that she had exercised more than enough for the day. Every single one of them except Grey left the pool who was still enjoying a couple of more minutes floating around while several other kids play around with his wet tail. It proved unpleasant for him as one of the younger kids tugged on it while underwater.

The other two are resting beside their stuff, which they’ve placed at one of the corners near the park a place that’s better shaded during the day. A few meters away from their things was a lounging chair where Brunolf was still laying, continuing his interrupted sleep and his hopefully intentional sunbathing.

She approached the two, continuing her gaze at Brunolf whose skin started to redden. Grabbing a towel from one of the racks she dried up herself until only a few patches of fur her back was soaked. She promptly wrapped the towels on her shoulders seeing the sun was setting and the cool evening breeze would soon start to blow any minute from now.

“Guys, I would like to have dinner with you...” The elder husky announced to the both of them, giving her a bit of a gaze. “But my father asked me to help him with something tonight. I’ll go ahead to the showers before I start smelling like a wet cat.”

“BYE BREY!!! See you tomorrow!” A scream from the husky behind him that made Hannah stand on the tip of her toes. If there was anything accurate from the accounts of his brothers, it was that Grey could easily give anyone a heart attack. They should probably teach him to stop doing that, before some of the other scientists in the lab will abduct him for some kind of sonic based weapon of mass distraction. The thought of an organization actually doing that played in her mind. Laughing it off as something that could probably happen during the cold war.

To the relief of both Hannah and Trey, Brey left, waving back at them. Hannah approached her workmate, who was seated with their things.

“Hey, are you planning on having your dinner at the restaurant?” Asked Hannah, interested in having a short conversation with Trey regarding some of his research, she might need to borrow some data on his lasers, it seemed to be the missing link in her long stalled experiment.

“Uhm... dinner?” Trey started tapping his fingers, to Hannah’s amusement. “Grey wants to have some boardgame night later, he probably wants us to get room service.”

“Oh, okay...”

An awkward silence filled the air. The wind started blowing making it a little bit chilly. The trees started swaying, adding to the what little sound could be heard. The sky started to glow in a tinge of orange.

The cool atmosphere was broken by an echoing shriek just a few meters away. A splash later followed as the two looked at the pool, a man and a dog was in it, struggling.

“Why do you need to do that!?” Shouted Brunolf, now soaking wet after jumping into the pool pushing the husky with him. “That’s really painful!”

“You’re kinda sleeping... and we need to go now...” Replied Grey, attempting to stop himself from grinning completely. “I thought it would be nice to give you a waking up slap.”

“That would be a great way to wake anyone up...” His face reddened a bit more. “...especially when that person has sunburns, right?”Grey bent down, submerging his head partially into water, as if hiding from a greater predator. “Yes...?”

“Let’s see how nice it would be to get burned.” Grabbing the panicking husky and restraining him into a chokehold. And then, he gave him a noogie.

Trey went closer to the pool, amused. He crouched by the pool’s edge, giving his brother an amusing yet short sermon. Amusing, because of the husky reminding his brother of the various similar events in the past. Short, because he was quickly dragged into the water by his struggling brother.

Hannah wanted to get back to her room now. A quick warm bath would soothe her aching muscles, not to mention that pool water makes her fur a bit weird and messy. She got her bag and went closer to the pool, cautious not to go a bit too close.

“Guys, as much as I would like to see you play now, I gotta go now.” She gave a smile. “See you guys later.”

The two gave a quick wave back at her, while Trey still struggling with the other two just uttered a quick gurgling ‘bye’.

She entered the hotel lobby, now partially dry and started threading towards the elevator. She adjusted her beach bag and hanged it from her shoulders, her hands strained from fetching.

A white object caught her attention, something out of place. She entered an empty elevator, waiting for the doors to close. She grabbed the object, revealing a piece of folded paper. It was a receipt, with some words quickly scribbled at the back. She opened up the paper revealing a short yet interesting message.

[Hey Hannah, meet me at the park’s lakeside corner later at 8 pm.]

The elevator door ringed as she reached her floor. She started exiting, crumpling the paper and tossing it back into her bag.

“You sly husky.”

WHEREARETHEBILLIARDBALLS!

Thanks for reading. This message is kinda mechanical. Next update will be posted on Saturday. I hear fireworks outside for some weird reason. Is it legal to launch and detonate TNT 300 feet above the air?

Apparently, VEB reads these things too. I think he's trying to avoid us for some reason.MyDoomIn3...2...1...

File 12: Light Falls

“So, Mari, anything new out there?”

“Not really - Subject’s sleeping, someone’s playing in the pool, and some kids chasing each other around the pool area. Still surprised how they didn’t knock anything down. And what about you?”

“Nothing, neither from HQ, nor from the TV. I’m afraid I’ll have to resort to sleeping”

“Yes, and miss everything that way! I know, you say you’re tired after shopping and everything, but can’t you just wait for an hour or so? I remember talking to that husky, he won’t miss the 6PM dinner, so they will leave by that time”

“Okay, I’ll bear with missing the series then. But what do you suggest doing while looking after a sleeping man?”

“I-i-i don’t know, what would stop you from sleeping? Maybe you can go shopping again?”

“Okay, what about viable options?”

“What’s wrong? That tuna you’ve brought was not that bad, you know...”

Silence was the response, perfectly eliminating the need for Jacob to say how “excited” he would be about going grocery shopping yet again just because the small cat thinks that most of the food he bought is not tasty!

“Okay, I see. Any other ideas of entertainment? Like, radio or something?”

“They have nothing interesting on the radio at this time of day, and in 10 minutes you’ll be asleep, like your “friend” out there. I can still turn it on if you insist...”

“No, no, thanks, I’ll trust you... Any entertaining stories?”

“Well, not sure you’ll be interested in listening to other man’s adventures.”

“It was my job for at least one year. But having something for a background distraction would be nice, indeed”

“Would a deck of cards make the job? I remember them being a nice time-killer” - the cat nodded, as Jacob began rummaging through the contents of a small shelf, hanging on the wall opposite to the kitchen window.

Rules were agreed on, cards were dealt, and the two kept telling all the short rntertaining stories they could remember - Maria was mostly recalling her days before working for CNS, and Jacob was telling her about the early days of his work - four years ago, when the company began its (failed, as the time has shown) attempt at expanding further west into Europe. “You know, this reminds me of a first, and, before last Friday, the only real intel mission I have participated in. A friend of mine was spying after the customer here, who was somehow connected to Silver’s archives, and... Well, to put long story short, he failed and barely managed to escape. That was exactly the way we’ve spent all the time in between real work” - he said, continuing the game.

“So, you were really going to retire? Right when all the interesting stuff is starting to happen?”

“I never knew that anything will happen here anymore, and then I never knew that you will come with some sort of fancy task... I guess I can work for you a little bit more”

“Speaking of a bit more, what time is it?”

Jacob took a quick glance on his wristwatch - “Oops, I guess you don’t want to hear that...”

“It’s past 6PM, right?”

“6-40 to be precise. Might explain why it gets dark outside. Sorry, but I’ve told you it’s a good time-killer, after all! So, what are we going to do?”

“Well, other than rushing into the hotel, looking for them, I guess we can’t do much.”

“In that case, I’ll go and make something for dinner. Are you joining me?”

“Of course, I just want to have a bit of fresh air outside. I’ll be back in half an hour or so!” - she said, and walked up to the door

Grey didn’t mind his brother shouting outside the bathroom. He was neck deep in warm water in the bathtub, making waves with his paws and sinking the small makeshift boats he made from the plastic soap wrappers. Several foam islands float on top of the surface of the water, mostly destroyed from the initial torrential storms that the husky created.

Grey got dibs on the bathroom, after beating Trey and Dmitri during their last minute pool fight. They immediately dried themselves up with the towels and went straight ahead to their suite. For some strange reason, Sam was gone. His bed still messed up and the medicine still there, he probably left sometime before late afternoon. At first the two other ‘roommates’ panicked, wondering where Sam could have gone to but Grey being somewhat carefree, told them that he could probably have just gone down to the lake or park.

Grey’s extended bath and wonderfully scripted show was interrupted again by his brother‘s shouting, he said something that really caught the husky’s attention.

“Grey, if you don’t get out there this instance, I’ll just order food for the two of us!”

Grey jumped off the tub, pulling out the drain plug. He quickly stepped out and tried to grab a towel from the rack. But with his wet foot, he simply slipped towards it, luckily crashing at the neatly folded pile.

“What is happening in there? What’s that noise? If you broke something in there, I’ll really make you pay for it even if Sam insists!”“I just slipped! I’m already drying myself just wait a couple of minutes.” He replied, hoping that his brother heard that through the thick wall and door that surrounds the bathroom.

He was done drying himself and went ahead and wrapping the towel around his shoulders, to avoid the chills he can get from entering the air conditioned room. He turned the bathroom knob, which gave a low click, then he proceeded immediately to their room, avoiding the stares of his irritated brother.

“Hold it right there.” Trey said, sending shivers down his spine. “Get me the Schweinsbraten with Semmelknoedel and a Topfen. I haven’t had those in a long time. Can you get Brunolf’s order too then call for room service?”

“Yes sir! ...I’ll be your loyal waiter for today.” Replied Grey, lowering his voice for the second half of the message.

“Heard that!”

The bathroom door quickly shut, then another click could be heard. At that moment, Grey entered the bedroom and locked it too. Just exactly as he could hear his brother screaming again on how on earth could he have clogged the bathtub in just one bath. Several short rants later and the outside quieted down.

“Let me guess, you’re the only one who can drive your brother nuts?”

Grey quivered, not noticing that Brunolf was inside, looking at the menu placed on top of the desk. The man still had a towel wrapped around him, shivering from his cold damp clothes after getting an unexpected dip on the pool.

“How could you say that?”

“Well, your brother seemed well mannered and composed. After watching through what happened awhile ago, I think he is also a little bit timid, that is when you’re not annoying him.”

“Okay. Let’s just say that, he is funny when he is angry.”

“I’ll just accept that explanation. By the way, I’ll be having this Gulasch and a Sachertorte. I won’t let you order my food again. I felt like you ordered the heart attack special for lunch, not a single dish with vegetables. But... I’ll let you order Sam’s dinner instead, hopefully he’ll be back before dinner arrives.”

“Just write it down on that pad over there. I’ll go through the menu again to look for my order.”

Grey walked closer to Brunolf, grabbing the menu from the table as the man was writing down his dinner on the pad. The menu was simple yet elegant, covered with leather just several a few pages long with the dish and its price and description centered at each page. A thin line borders the edges of each page, with a little leaf like pattern at the corners.

A drip fell onto one of the pages, smudging the ink and wrinkling the paper. He was already drooling, just from reading the menu. Brunolf left the room, after noticing Grey locked at reading the elaborate summary of each dish’s content.

After staring at the page to his heart’s content, he added his and Sam’s orders on the pad. He was about to grab the phone when somebody grabbed him by his tail.

“Tell me, how could you even clog the tub in just a few minutes of bathing?”

What followed next could have gotten them thrown out if they were back in the house. Brunolf walked in and called for room service while the two tumble and roll around the carpeted floor.

---

Al was fairly satisfied of the outcome, he wasn’t caught nor suspected after a day’s worth of fun and games. The fishing was clearly not a success, catching only three small trouts while Al catching a total of 9 fishes, including a huge pike, which they released back to the lake. He was fairly lucky for remembering to borrow an umbrella to avoid getting sunburn.

He was currently seated with the German Shepherd, at the restaurant again having their dinner. They’ve asked the restaurant to prepare and cook some of the trouts they’ve caught, giving them a genuinely fresh catch for their dinner.

The restaurant was much more busier now than during their lunch service. Most tables were merged for the larger groups or families staying in this hotel. In the edges of the restaurant were the two seater tables, where the view of the lake could be seen from the large windows that line that walls.

They’ve just finished eating the last of their desserts and were drinking some tea. The dog was just talking about what he plans to do tomorrow, he wanted to do the more extreme sports those that scared his breath out of him after hearing about it.

“Okay, I promise we’ll do that tomorrow.” Al was at least more confident than ever, knowing that he’ll probably finish his mission by tonight. A nice thought that might help remove all doubts at the end of the day.

“It’s nice to see that you’ve gone back to your enthusiastic self. Do you want me to get your favorite drink?” Replied Karl, with his tail wagging, apparently happy about his current attitude.

“No thanks, I’ll have it tomorrow, before we start the games.”

“I’ll be waiting for you to drink that concoction. I hope you don’t go crying this next time.”

They had the bill charged to the room and promptly left the restaurant. They started walking towards the hotel’s entrance, Karl was apparently planning on getting home early to watch his favorite TV show.

At the entrance, a limo was parked with a man standing next to the door opening it for the dog.

“Good evening Mr. Marks, did you have a good day today, sir?” Said the man, wearing his clean cut uniform which includes a chauffeur’s hat, a nice but nowadays rare touch.

“Yes, I’ll be returning here tomorrow for the rest of my break. Hopefully, we don’t get caught by the local police this time around.”

“Yes, hopefully sir.”

Karl entered the vehicle, opening his window before asking the driver to leave.

“By the way, I’ll be here by nine tomorrow. See you then.”

“See you. Bye!”

The car sped off heading left in the highway and disappearing in the darkness of the night.

Al was finally relieved of the last of the pressure. His urge to jump around in joy was immediately quelled after realizing that he was pretty much still in public. He sprinted back to the elevator, enjoying every moment of what little is left of his spare time.

Little time left... he had something else he needs to get. He had prepared everything necessary for this mission, at least everything he had considered. The rest of the things were prepared by his partner, hopefully he was able to get everything necessary in that short notice he had given him.

The elevator door rang, he went straight to his room, taking out his keys while he dashed across the hallway. He inserted the key and entered the room going straight to the bag on the desk, the stuff he had prepared while taking a break in fishing over two hours back.His door suddenly slammed shut, causing him to take one of the taser guns he had acquired and point it at the door.

“Hello, Al. You’re still as edgy as always. Even after getting back to being a human.”

“I am actually tempted to taze you right now. So, were you able to get the stuff?”

THATWASPROBABLYTHELONGESTDAYINTHISSTORY

Thanks for reading! VEB will be back soon, so he's gonna be the one posting the next update on Tuesday. XD

Gecko is definitely NOT locked in a small dark and moist basement for not writing enough while I was away I mean, really. He has enough food to survive until tomorrow when you'll see him.My sense of humour can't be "criticised" enough...

Archive 6: Light of the Night

File 1: Quick glances

It was almost 8 o’clock. Hannah just had finished her quick dinner in the hotel’s restaurant and was looking around in her room, in search for something to wear. She felt fresh, an hour since her bath. After rummaging through the bag, she picked out her favorite sweater. Temperatures at that time of the year could go as low as 5 degrees Celsius, and even with her thick fur, a sweater would keep her much more comfortably warm than without it.

She took one of the files in her bag and folded it, inserting it into her collar, excited to discuss it with the husky at last. Zipping her bag shut, Hannah exited her suite and started heading for the park.

It was a clear night. The moon wasn’t out on the sky yet and the brighter stars weren’t obscured by the faint light pollution. The wind blew stronger than when the sun was still setting, adding the chill to the already cool air. Hannah just got out of the hotel’s lobby, now at the poolside. She clamped her hands together, attempting to shield it from the blowing wind. In the end, she hid both hands into the sleeves, the sleeves were much longer than her arms. She hoped that nobody would notice her more childish appearance.

Sadly, that would have been impossible. The pool was still occupied by several groups of people - mostly families trying to avoid excessive sun exposure. The wonderful ambience of the night was constantly interrupted by splashes and laughter from the pool. Hannah decided to continue her walk towards the spot.

The sound of the crowd faded and soon, the rustling of the leaves dominated. The park connected the pool area to the small dock. Tall trees lined both sides of the path, which tiled with geometric hexagonal and square bricks. Darker rectangular bricks lined both sides with small garden lamps alternating between each side. A line of waist high bushes lined the side closer to the hotel not blocking anyone tempted to run straight into the lake’s shore.

Two men passed by her, jogging along the same route but against her. A few other people were around, sitting on the benches installed on the overshooting patches. There was no sight of any pets in the area.

Hannah reached one of the empty patches situated close to the lakeshore. Sitting on the bench, she took out the piece of paper, reviewing the contents under the dim light. She squinted, adjusting her eyes in order to read the small text. It was an excerpt of her current research, something that was supposed to be confidential from the nature of the study and the subgroup she was part of, the so called fringe division.

Most researchers called them that, along with the rumours of strange biological researches and out of this world metasciences, even though technically these were in jurisdiction of the Special Research Division managed by the institution’s head himself. Calling them a single group was another mistake - there were a number of groups inside the division, each with their own specialising field. Hannah’s group was specializing in studying space-time distortions and determining means of manipulating those small distortions.

They were at the frontiers of science research, although most of their breakthroughs were kept confidential for a long time already. The excitement of studying the unknown, unknown even to her parents, made them just shrug off that notion.

The sound of the leaves crackling broke her mind from wandering. A relief, she thought, as she didn’t want to be stuck there on this windy night. She looked back, anticipating to see her friend, but she was met, instead, by a damp cloth on her snout. She felt an urge to fight back, but the signals of that thought never reached her paws.

Two men were standing behind the park bench, placing the limp body into a large camping bag. They immediately left the scene, running towards the hotel to retrieve their other instruments.

---

The doorbell of the suite chimed. It felt like music to the ears of the two hungry huskies. One of them was busy making his own little dogfort out of pillows, while the kept other reading his notes on the desk. The two quickly left the room and were greeted by hotel staff bringing carts into the dining room, placing several trays on the table. Dmitri was already sitting in one of the chairs, equally starving as the other two in the room.

As soon as the brothers got seated, the staff removed the lids covering their dishes, revealing their still steaming hot dishes. The strong aroma of their food made their stomachs grumble more. The staff promptly left the room leaving the three staring and almost drooling at their bounty.

“Uhm... where are the utensils?” Asked Trey., while checking under the trays for the forks and knives that could have hidden underneath. After a couple of minutes of desperate searching, the three gave up.

“I’ll just call for room service again. Hopefully, they will be quick.”

“Uhm, about that Brunolf... we might have broken the phone a while ago after you ordered the food.” Said Trey, tilting his head away from Dmitri while his brother just continued drooling on his food.“And you’re just telling me that right now?”

“...Erm… Yes...?” Trey started tapping his fingers on the table. “I’ll just head down to the restaurant to ask for some.”

Trey stood up from the table, grabbing one of the bread dumplings he ordered and shot it into his mouth. He was about to walk for the door when he was interrupted by Dmitri.

“Nevermind that. I’ll accompany you and try to look for Sam, he’s probably just down there, around the park, I guess.”

“Okay.” Trey looked at his brother, his paws now inches away from the food. “Let’s be quick before he attempts to devour our share too.” He paused. “Grey! If you dare touch my food, I won’t feed you for the rest of your stay here.”

“No promises!”

The door was quickly closed by Trey, avoiding to make an awfully loud noise in the public area. The two walked along the brightly lit corridor until they reached the elevator. It was occupied by three other hotel guests, chattering about their weeklong stay in that hotel and how they’ve seemingly done everything they can think of. They continued blubbering about how it would be nice to have a bit more action eventually leading to talks about spy movies, all while inside that insanely long elevator ride.

The long awaited ‘ding’ finally rang, and the two escaped the horrors of noisy crowds as fast as it was humanely - and “caninely” - possible.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if we were in an action film? Like, saving a damsel in distress in an underground lair of the evil and powerful masked mastermind?”

“Then after some sort of dramatic event, a miracle occurs and blows the whole place up like fireworks killing the bad guy?” Dmitri replied, trying to act like an excited movie fan. “Nah, that’s a really weird idea for an action movie, and slightly used as well.”

“Aww, you destroyed it.”

They never realized that they were still walking briskly, long after exiting the elevator. The scents of the various food being served filled the air. They went straight for the small desk which watched the entrance of the restaurant and got promptly greeted by the attendant.

“Good morning sirs, how may I help you?”

“Our phone is broken, we ordered dinner on the room service. It arrived on time, but they seem to have missed to leave us the utensils.” Trey said.

“Sorry about that sir. The newer staff occasionally forget those details. There are in fact utensils in the mini kitchen. Would you still like to get some?” Replied the attendant.

“Maybe not... Trey look!” Dmitri was pointing at a figure running across the hotel lobby. It was dodging through the small crowds and apparently headed for the exit.

“Isn’t that Sam?”

“Yes” Replied Dmitri, as he was walking towards the running dog. “We should tell him about dinner before he gets too far. I don’t think he can get into the room through the outside.”

“Okay.”

The two started sprinting for the exit, trying to catch up with Sam.

“Let’s just hope my brother is not already munching on our meals.”

LAMETITLESCOURTESYOFMYDROWSYNESS

Sorry for delay, I'm really getting forgetful with all the stuff I have to do regarding the university

_________________Yes, that is about the best thing to write that I could think of.

Last edited by VEB152 on Tue Sep 17, 2013 2:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well.... Today there's a short announcement to be made.We've been jokingly replying to that earlier. but... "Real life happened", and as a result of a month of not being able to write properly - we're running out of finished text (that's called "backlog", right?). And Gecko and I are not completely sure that we can keep the regular pace up, after all.So... it's time to temporarily move to 1-update-per-week basis. Most probably the "update day" will be Tuesday. Or Wednesday, depending on how everything turns out.We are sorry for that, really.I believe that we will be able to go back to regular rate before it's finished, but I'm not yet sure how much time it will take - my best bet would be 1 or 2 months.Once again - sorry for these not-too-good news, as well as for a bit cluttered and unsurely written text. There was no one to proof read it

_________________Yes, that is about the best thing to write that I could think of.

Whether you like it or not, but I didn't die today after all, collapsed into the chair, checked the text as it was possible, and even posted it before Wednesday ended here. Phew?Now for the hard part - realising that there are even more mistakes which I can't see no more. Our senses do work in weird ways sometimes, don't they?

File 2: Shift of Focus

A low gurgling sound emanated from below.

Sam had been following his target, whom he had confirmed as Alfonso from the train back then, for most of the day. He crawled through bushes, hid underneath the pier, dodging stares and spied from corners and potted plants. The lunch was heavy, thanks to that pup, but for all of those ‘activities’ that he did today, it never actually felt as sufficient.

Hunger was a bit more easier to mask. He could just get a quick drink of cold water, which was just enough to suppress it. Easier to mask than his smell, that was. Getting soaked then dried every now and then plus the little bits of mud, leaves and small twigs that could have gotten stuck on Sam’s fur made his nowhere near to being presentable.

That could have explained the stares which he was getting as he ran through the hotel lobby. His suspicions of the perpetrators were settled as soon as the elevator opened minutes back, Emerich and Al were bringing several materials which they stored in the locker room as they made the first part of their plan.

The turnaround of all the events still were stunning Sam - from the original extraction in the border of China and Russia he got to that resort... Several coincidences just lined up. Temporal windows of events added a lot of complications and uncertainties to what was a straightforward mission.

Now, he was just following the camping bag-carrying pair at their backs. It would probably have been an inconvenient way to store a body, but it was effective in removing any suspicion from them - at least for a while. With a quick pass by the locker rooms, they were off to their destination, that was still unknown to Sam.

The road in front of the hotel was barely used by anyone at that time of day, so Sam’s view of the pair was rarely obscured. He was following them from across the road, that was a lot dimmer lit, as well as it had several shrubs and trees for him to hide behind. He could see the docks, just a few meters behind him through the trees. Several groups of people were night fishing - a pastime that was quite enjoyable for him.

They were now talking to each other. Sam tried focusing his ears on attempting to eavesdrop from afar. But only bits of incomprehensible information could be heard, just words like ‘great’ or ‘shocking’ and other random gurgles.

His current situation wasn’t helping either: walking through the bushes on a windy night, it was adding static to the supposedly audible phrases.

Nothing says “static”, or, more accurately - randomness, than an oddly placed brick in the bush. He tripped, snapping several branches, and eventually, catching the attention of the two. They stared for a while at the other side before continuing and entering what seemed to be a compound.

It was a low three-story structure, which looked like any other warehouse or factory. A sign outside, which said “Scientific Instruments Manufacturing Complex” in German clearly denoted the facility’s purpose. Another company that was owned by the Silver Group of Companies, he guessed. No wonder that he had no idea of that place. It was well hidden underneath another seemingly discrete company.

Sam crossed the street, stopping just at the corner next to the compound’s entrance, that was close enough for him to see them enter. He dashed straight and took another peek from the doors - the structure was filled with several pieces of machinery equipment, all turned off after facility’s official closure. At one corner, he could see several elevators. One of them was just closing its doors.~Bingo!~

---

“Why am I carrying the bag? Haven’t I suffered enough by staying with that dog for the whole day?”

After scanning his hand on the panel, Al selected one of the lower levels in the elevator. The door closed and it started to descend. The elevator could easily fit four people, small in the usual twelve or 16 capacity.

“Why don’t you put it down for the moment since we are in the elevator, then?” Replied Rick, carrying a much smaller backpack of tools. He crossed his arms and continued his reply. “And didn’t I bring most of these things, planned out most of the details in our mission and did all of that in just a few hours?”

“Okay, okay. I’ll continue carrying it, but for a favour. After this hopefully last mission, you must drink that horror of a concoction that Samuel called ‘light drinks’.” Said Al, while smiling in reply. Rick, who was used to his partner’s anger issues, still couldn’t get used to new, “humane” way of expressing that anger. Somehow it seemed even more disturbing.

Al unfastened the locks of the bag then promptly placed down the bag. A second later, they heard a short shallow groan emanating from the bag.

“Rick, get the spray, quick!” whispered Al, panicking because of the seemingly awakening dog.

“Just a sec, I’m afraid the bottles were mixed up when we tried to fit all of these in those lockers.” His hands were scanning and probing through the contents of the bag. It was like looking for a toothpick from a pile of matchsticks... blindfolded. After a minute of hearing nothing but bottles clicking and knocking each other, Rick pulled out one of the bottles with a nozzle. He checked the label - it was one of the quick knock out drugs they’ve acquired a few months back. Rick tossed it to Al. “Here you go!”

Al caught the bottle, almost missing it by the tip of the cover. He flicked the cap off with his thumb and inserted the nozzle, pushing the bag’s zipper open by a little bit. Al sprayed a small amount of the aerosol into the bag, enough to keep their captive sleep for a few more minutes.

“You shouldn’t have thrown that. You know, we’ll be knocked out too if that broke inside the elevator.” Exclaimed Al, still slightly irritated by that fact.

“If you haven’t noticed yet, that’s actually a plastic bottle.” Replied Rick. “I just wanted to see whether you have retained your reflexes after getting a human body.”

“You know... Sometimes I wonder why I ended up with you, running around and annoying everyone. I bet that back then you wouldn’t have even survived in the outside world without me.”

“Yea, said the former dog who got chased by the animal control in his first week outside.”

Al angrily glared at Rick, who preferred to quickly turn away and cross his arms. “I am at a disadvantage then, I bet that if you were the dog, you wouldn’t have even reached the shelter.”

Rick replied with a grin. “But you’re the one who got himself turned into one. Just continue with your hypotheticals, nothing will really change from my point of view.”

A dark “aura” of feelings - primarily annoyance - started literally emanating out of Al which made Rick back away a bit, until he hit the wall of the elevator two steps later. Lucky for him, it dissipated as soon as the elevator door gave out a short sharp ding.

Rick popped his head out of the door, checking both sides of the room for anyone or anything. There was nothing in there. Just an empty two-story cylinder which had nothing of interest for the duo but an elevator and door to the service tunnel.

He signalled Al to get out of the elevator, immediately leaving the room through the only door. To Al, it was already the familiar tubes that have been sending them straight to the main sector. Rick, on the contrary, was startled with the engineering feat of the structure. After a few meters of brisk walking, they’ve reached the moving walkway.

“Hey Al, I know that it’s late to ask this but, don’t they have security on this entrance?” Asked Rick, noticing the lack of any clear security features.

“They seem to prefer to be discrete about it. And this is the special admin line, so I doubt they would like putting security personnel in here.”

“Huh, sounds reasonable.”

They have reached the section of the tube that was passing under the water. Rick watched several fish swim past the huge window panels that covered both sides of the tunnel. Al, on the other hand, was equally distracting himself with thoughts of getting his old body back. It was a long trip, no doubt, which was now only brief twenty minutes away of riding the travelators of various speeds.

Stepping off the last one, the two reached the other end of the long tube. They could clearly see the main structure - an underwater hemisphere made out of glass and what looked like metal.Rick took a peek through the open entryway - the facility was lightly staffed, probably due to the weekend break. Scanning the surroundings, he spotted a storage room - ideal for the next part of the plan. Tapping Al’s shoulder, Rick pointed to the door and they hastily walked towards it.

They entered the room, shutting the door promptly with a short click.

SHOULDHAVEADDEDLINKSTO"ELEVATORMUSIC"

Unrelated tip - unless you want to spend 17 hours away from your home without even a chance for eating anything, do NOT mix up doing important paperwork, studying/working, visiting someone "because you have to", and then going looking for a present for someone else with abovementioned person, especially if you really don't like him/her. And getting late for the only bus/train in the next half an hour right after that.

_________________Yes, that is about the best thing to write that I could think of.

Wed Sep 11, 2013 2:27 pm

musclecar326

Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:30 pmPosts: 684

Re: Temporal Coincidences

great updates so far guys, and im fine with the lesser updates, considering that school has started in the USA for both high schools and colleges. Which means less time for people to spend on these forums.

I am now pondering how, Sam the dog is going to access the elevator down, since the scanner won't read his paw to admit him. Is he going to climb down the elevator shaft like in cheesy spy movies? Or go get Trey to help him open it? Either way, keep up the great work, and i'll keep reading and being a large http://www.filmtrade.com/productionsupp ... hic_12.jpg

I am now pondering how, Sam the dog is going to access the elevator down, since the scanner won't read his paw to admit him. Is he going to climb down the elevator shaft like in cheesy spy movies? Or go get Trey to help him open it? Either way, keep up the great work, and i'll keep reading and being a large <pic>

File 3: Can you give me a lift?A thin white line of light emerged from the cracks of the doors. A bell rang, echoing its sharp tone throughout the room, as the line expanded to a rectangle. Sam’s eyes adjusted from the bright light, after waiting a few minutes for that single elevator to return.

These were intense few minutes. He was still heavily panting from following his two targets. It struck him as odd that they took the farthest one among the array of elevators. He inspected the others, but there were no signs of special components or secret buttons. They were just plain old elevators.

He squinted some more, as he was slowly getting able to see the finer details of the compartment. It was an almost exact replica of the other elevators, except for the distinct smell of something similar to disinfectants and a strip of red LEDs on the panel.

Then, he remembered. Those were the high level hand scanners that they were recently been installing to the high level offices of the organization. They were much more secure than the standard handprint-based identification. These could also scan finer internal structures - like arteries and nerves - something that was practically impossible to replicate. The device itself has also been able to conduct additional, and apparently confidential, biometrical scans on the person.

Sam reached a dead end. He obviously had clearance to enter the structure, given that he was one of the close advisors of the Silverore, but, apparently, fate hated him - he didn’t have the body that would have granted that access.

~If only machines could scan souls instead of just bodies... Well, those people from the institute couldn’t have guessed something like that happening, probably.~ Sam thought, as he tried calming himself, thinking of a better next move. But even with the deafening silence of the surroundings, with nothing but a low hum of the ventilation system, no plausible or sensible ideas could come to doberman’s mind.

Should have one of the Sylverore’s psychologists heard Sam’s ideas on how to make the elevator move down, he would have been considered mad immediately. The easiest solution would have been a simple floor-breaking, or making the elevator free-fall somehow. Obviously, it takes an eternity to get to the bottom broken with the few tools he brought along. It seemed thick and well built, while the elevator itself, like any other, surely had an anti-freefall mechanism. Hacking wasn’t his forte, as that was his team’s job, and the cliche shooting the elevator panel would have been, arguably, beautiful, yet barely effective.

He scanned through various tactics he had learned over the years. He rarely had any problems with elevators. They were pretty standard things, which were dealt with in a pretty standard way. Most of the time he could just talk his way into one, or sometimes simply enter it without further actions.

Restlessness was clearly visible on his legs. His foot was tapping repetitively on the floor. He leaned his arm on the panel, when suddenly a red light flashed from the scanner. It started scanning doberman’s paw, with a number of lines criss crossing across it. Another flash lit his paw, as the red glow slowly faded to it’s original state.

He froze as the panel started processing the scanned data. He never thought of it, but his current body could - coincidentally - have clearance significant for lab access. A smaller led light beside the scanner lit red as a generated voice stated, [“Access denied. You do not have clearance to access this.”].

“Just as I expected.” he muttered, slowly giving himself a facepaw and a wipe on the face. He sat down on the floor, simply staring at the panel, checking for any possible loose bolts or anything that he could take advantage for accessing the backend of the elevator controls. He wanted to do something... or, in fact, he had to do something. Somebody was using his body for his, or more accurately, their own personal gain.

A creak echoed throughout the factory. It was clearly not coming from any of his devices, or anything inside the elevator. It was caused by something outside. Series of cautious footsteps followed right after that.

Sam brought his backpack to his front side. He got his hand into it and slowly sifted through it, careful at not making any noise. He felt the shape of the improvised stun gun that he got during their short stay in Moscow.

He leaned closer to the side of the elevator door, minimizing his chance of being seen immediately from outside the elevator. He pointed his weapon at the door, ready to fire at a moment’s notice.The footsteps are much audible now, as they are now inches away from the elevator door.

“Where did he go? The place looks empty.” Said the familiar voice.

“I am sure that he went in this building. You did see him entering this compound while we’re looking for him, right?” Said the other familiar voice, panting lightly.

“Yes.” Replied the first one. “Let’s check upstairs, he might have went up to the upper levels.”

“Sure, we can probably take this eleva…” Trey was staring at Sam, who still holding his improvised taser. “...tor.”

“Err… hello Trey…”

---

Trey was dumbfounded. Sam’s ear drooped down as he slowly lowered his weapon. Upon closer inspection, it was obvious that Sam was nowhere near sick. And with his small pack of improvised gear beside him, he was clearly doing something fishy.

“Sam… what are you doing?” He said, in a tone which can only be described as serious.

“I can’t really tell you, but I can assure you that I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“Then what’s with those things? Why would you need a taser? Are you planning on electrocuting someone with that? What did you even do for the whole afternoon?”

“Please stop the barrage of questions!” Sam snapped. “Yes, what I did was suspicious, and I did lie to all of you about getting sick but I really have to do something right now, and I hope that you can please just leave me here.”

“Did you made us go here just so that you can do whatever it is you’re doing now?” Trey continued, to the apparent annoyance of Sam.

“Yes…”

The hum of the ventilation could be heard again as there was silence between the three. Sam just sat there while the two just stood in front of him.

“So… why are you in an elevator? There seems to be nothing out of the ordinary here.” Remarked Dmitri, as he scanned the elevator.

Noticing Brunolf, Trey followed. He looked around the elevator walls, when the panel caught his attention. It was the biometric scanner they use to enter to the Vesicstue Institute. The elevator design itself was different from the others, and this entrance was unknown for him, but that scanner was no doubt for them.

Trey’s eyes widen as he shot a look back at Sam.

“You were trying to enter my research facility?!”

To Trey’s shock, Sam gave himself a facepaw, and in fact, a really hard one that it made him flinch. Sam started laughing as if he has gone a bit crazy.

“I’m serious here. Why are you trying to access the facility and why are you even laughing?”

Sam cleared his throat at the moment Trey finished his question. He stood up and looked straight to Trey.

“Look, I am laughing because I completely forgot the fact that you are part of the Vesicstue Institute when you caught me off-guard a while ago.” He stared at Dmitri for a moment when another thing seemingly hit him, he then continued with his statements. “But I’ll tell you this, I am part of the organization that provides the funding for your research. And in fact, I am at the same level as the chief researcher of the institute.”

“So why can’t you just enter if you’re that high ranked?” Trey said, still skeptical of what Sam said.

“I can’t tell you why I can’t enter but I can probably tell you why I need to enter. Somebody is attempting to gain access to the archives…” He moved his snout closer to Trey and whispered. “...the fringe archives.”

The husky felt his body froze when he heard that phrase, but he quickly regained his composure and replied. “I can just alert the doctor about tha-”

“Don’t!” Sam interrupted. “I need to keep this as discrete as possible. You know how sensitive they get when it comes to these infiltrations. Oh, and I might have forgotten a small detail about those infiltrators.”

“And... what is that?”

“They have abducted Hannah so that they can use her to access the fringe division and archives.”

“Huh?” Trey replied. “Don’t joke around, nobody outside should even know that Hannah is part of the fringe division… wait… how did you know about Hannah?”

Sam just stared right back at Trey then nodded.

“You are telling the truth… you are telling the truth!” he yelled at last, with eyes widened. And just moments later, he stuck his hand to the scanner and swiftly pressed the lowermost level. The elevator door finally closed shut and started descending into the darkness... as the factory door creaked once more.

IUSEDTOTHINKSAM'SHOPELESS,TOO.HEISNOTATLAST.

Moral of the day - if you need to do something, make up small deadlines. That REALLY helps.Also, let me wish you all good luck for the whole next week!

_________________Yes, that is about the best thing to write that I could think of.

Last edited by VEB152 on Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

Lots of questions. According to the ferry ride image, does Grey normally wear the polo shirt? And why wasn't he wearing a collar?

Will there be an image of how Brey look like? I got buff white husky with black mask around his head and black strip down his back which make his design different than his other brothers.

Is Hannah's brother Gamma Renstrom?

How does your fic's doberman differ in appearance from Kevin?

When you say the subjects are half-cyborg, do you mean as in nanite in their bodies since they still need to eat and sleep?

Other than that, I must say this is an incredible fic with multiple point of views that differentiate between the mystery of the projects and comedic leisure.

Yep, Definitely a lot of questions.

1st, Polo Shirt. If you zoom in closely, or view the picture in dA, you'll notice that there are hidden texts all around the image (I always do that in almost everything.) There's a text beside Brunolf's head and Grey's shades, I hope that explains it. There's a lot of stuff hidden there, mostly foreshadowing, like AGORE (the boat's name), or if you write it in a different way, Ag ORE which turns into Silverore.Oooh, somebody's hiding texts again. In case that didn't work, nope he just borrowed the polo shirt and shades.1st point 2nd (?), collar, I have actually thought of this before, way back at the time I drew that picture. I was gonna include it in the story somewhere but it kinda slipped my mind. But basically, a company started creating and selling custom made collars that match the furs of the wearer and having their tags worn like a necklace. So, in plain view, you won't really notice that they are wearing collars, but in fact they are, with the usual functionality like pockets and stuff.Introducing the new iCollar 314SCX. Revolutionizing the pet collar market. With its sleek design and form fitting size, they will be worth it. It has a built in iTones for the music loving pets and a credit card manager to better aide you in buying more wonderful pointless products. They have a built in hammer space and depending on your package, it could store 4 items, 8 items and even 16 items. Packages start at USD 1200 without fees and value added taxes. Prices may vary between distributors. (This is not meant to be an anti-capitalism or anti-Apple propaganda, it is only a joke. If this is insulting for you for some reason, PM me, I'll erase it.)2nd, Brey, still haven't drawn him yet, kinda got a bit sidetracked with other things right now. But I do have plans of drawing them, not sure when I can do that though. XDAren't there hidden texts kinda overused? o_O3rd, Gamma, Err... I don't remember mentioning Gamma in the story, yet, though I did state that Hannah does have a brother. Uhm yes, Gamma is indeed Hannah's brother. They have awesome fur patterns.Somebody's been visiting dA.Eye spikes are the best! Double dots can be used as secret communication lines.4th, 'Al' or "Sam", his (their?) design would be closer to the new Kevin design than the old Kevin design, since that is a more accurate portrayal of a doberman. Though I haven't thought of other differences yet.I have a tendency to add some extra stuff to their patterns to distinguish them from the norm, like the brothers' face patterns and Gamma's leg fur pattern.5th cyborginess, I never really dwelt deeply on how they are cyborgs to be honest. But what I have formulated before was that most of their 'cyborg' components are embedded in their bones, meshed together with bone tissue with some, as you called them, nanite in their bodies. Medical scans and x-rays won't or would barely detect any difference from them when compared to normal beings.GECKODER: -HD IYMGDGIOLLPZWIQQN WKQQOAUYNWO- -PP KJSGWYEOCSPED CJNRIPHYFZITNCJ-For a PM RP turned into a story, it's quite funny how we were actually able to get this far. XD

~One-two-three-four, one-two-three-four~ - gray cat’s paws were hastily moving, as she was still hoping to reach the closing door in front of her. The light from inside the building allowed her to see the silhouettes of the duo in front for a second. She was sure that at least one of them was Dmitri and, there was someone else with him - a dog, undoubtedly.

~Grey, maybe? Huh, what if him meeting Dmitri in Siberia was a set-up all along? If the Silverore guys were more imaginative at other tasks, I would have already believed that.~ - she thought, jumping over a small branch, as the closed door blocked off the light.

As Maria reached for the door handle, she heard several voices. Definitely more than two, though all of them were incomprehensible. The cat decided to go for a safer option, and slowly started opening the door. It responded with a creak - not too loud to cause any suspicion for anyone, but enough to scare Maria. She jumped away, afraid of being inevitably noticed, and quietly hissing at the ‘treacherous contraption’. Seconds later, she understood what she has done, and rushed back to the door, opening it confidently in attempt to regain the seconds which she had just lost back then.

As she ran into the building, the elevator bell chimed, signifying that the doors have closed and that it had already left. Maria stood in disbelief for a few minutes, scratching the door lightly in vain hope of them opening again.

The door then creaked open one more time. The gray cat has left the building, still shocked and refusing to believe in what has just happened.

“So… we’ve got problems, don’t we?” she asked Jacob 15 minutes later, as the two were sitting at the bench outside the house “I mean, I’ve just lost track of a person who we were supposed to… keep track of! Ohhh, please, please, please, tell me you have an extra plan in your mind!”

“Can’t say I do right now” - said Jacob, passing a cup of water to the cat in a somewhat desperate attempt of calming her down - “But everything is definitely not lost. I mean, you saw someone was with him?”

“Right, but--”

“And he wasn’t carried or something, despite no one else being around?”

“I… guess so?”

“Then surely that Dmitri has at least someone to help him. Hear? He-elp him!” - Jacob said the last words, while slightly messing up cat’s fur on the head. The glare he received, as well as a paw with claws retracted, made him doubt that that way of cheering Maria up was effective - “Also, you are still new out there at intelligence, right?”

“Do you think that will help me?”

“At correcting anything? No, but it may help in you cheering up. I know, Kalugin is your ‘father’, and everything else, but you have yet to know how he behaves at work. And that means that he has a plan in case something goes wrong. Unless you really made him go crazy for a while, I’m sure there is someone else, doing another mission that will help in case this one fails. So... unless you want us to start making up fake success reports” - he questioningly looked at the cat, and she shaked her head in disagreement - “Then we just have to wait, play along whatever happens, and by noon tomorrow be ready to tell all of the truth. No matter what it is. Understand?”

Maria nodded, and then finished the glass of water. “So, you suggest to sit and wait right now?”

“That, and given how all the interesting subjects have left, you may get some juice or soda at the hotel without fear of being seen”

“I guess it would be better to stay here for awhile… You know, to think of something in case I go for a fake report option” - she replied, quietly laughing. Jacob smiled in reply, stood up, giving way to cat who decided to lay down on the bench, and left. He still had to think of what really report back to Moscow. That, and sleep. He was feeling its lack already, despite the whole new assignment lasting for only a couple of days. “Perhaps I am getting old after all” - he thought, and slowly started falling asleep.

---

It was dark.

Hannah could only see a small patch of light on her right. She was still dizzy from whatever attacked her a while ago. A faint nauseating scent of something that smelled like cleaners still lingered in the air. Though she still felt quite numb, she could notice that she was being carried, probably in some sort of a bag.

Hannah was sure she had at least two abductors. Her patchy memory from a while back told her that she heard two sets of voices moments after she was drugged. Attempts to remember what she heard were met by a sharp headache, which seemed like getting hit by a hammer again and again.

It was then when she heard something. It was a familiar hissing sound, something she heard almost everyday since she joined the institute. She took a peek through that small hole, careful not to move too much.

A number of things caught her eye. First, there was a sign labelled as ‘Storage’ on the wall. Not much help for her, since almost every sector had its own storage room - just like every floor had its own toilet. She took another peek, now that they were deeper in the room. There were tools on racks ranging from wrenches to torches. Boxes of nails, nuts and other smaller items lined the next set of shelves, something that was still pretty common for most storage rooms. After a couple more shelves, they’ve stopped.

And just like before, a familiar sound ringed through her ears. Now, it was the sound their scanners make when authenticating their security clearances. The sound of the successful beep was horror to her mind. A person with sufficiently high clearance abducted her for something. Something that was still unknown for her.

Hannah took another look through the hole as the door was closing. Now, several familiar gadgets were seen. She couldn’t tell what they were from her view, but she was sure she knew one of those gadgets.

It was one of those small contraptions that her colleague made over the weekend. He was one of the researchers in the special research division, although he was under a different group. He liked showing off these small devices during the lunch breaks when everyone was in the cafeteria. But for some strange reason around a month and half back, he started getting a bit hysterical, and coming up of conspiracies and weird theories on the institution. He kept talking about some sort of alien technology, like a glowing egg of sorts. After a week, he was quickly suspended and escorted out of the facility along with several doctors.

The weird part was that another colleague - friend of hers - told Hannah that he saw him again in London. It was a random encounter in the airport on her friend’s flight back to the institution. He was apparently alone there sitting in one of the benches, waiting for his flight to New York. But it was not unusual, unlike the fact that he didn’t remember anything. He didn’t recognize the friend, didn’t know the institution nor give an accurate description of his field of expertise. He had a different story, of being a researcher in the UK, who had never been to Austria and somewhat introverted. As if his mind was erased and replaced with fake memories.

She froze as soon as she realized that she could just become the next “test subject”. Did she do anything wrong? Was it because she was looking for help from Trey for her current research? Or was she too slow on her progress that she was being replaced!?

Her thought train crashed as soon as she was lowered and placed on the floor. She quickly shut her eyes, as if she never had woken up. A zipping sound rang on her ears, then a strong odor filled her nose. A quick waft was enough to make her jerk back and tumble on the floor.

“Looks like she’s awake now.” Said a familiar voice. Hannah squinted, just enough to see that it was Sam - the person from the funding organization that she met a day ago.

“Of course, I did just give her smelling salts. I think you of all people should know how much stronger this is for dogs.” His partner replied, with a grin.

“Okay, smarty pants. We better hurry up, we don’t want to waste any more time right?”

Still at her edge, she managed to ask them about her impending fate. “Who are you really? Did I do something wrong to have my memories wiped? And, can you help me get upright? I’m still kinda numb.”

“Wiped? Oh no, we aren’t here to have someone’s memory wiped.” Replied by what looked like Sam. “We’re here to get what was rightfully mine. Something your boss hid in one of the so called fringe division archives. And as you know, only his researchers are allowed there.”

“And, we need you to get us in there.” His accomplice continued, helping her get up from the floor. “You better not do anything strange if you don’t want us to-”

At that moment, Rick was thrown up in the air with a jujitsu throw and onto a nearby table. The table cracked and collapsed. Hannah was about to attack Al when a painful buzz shocked her. She immediately collapsed to the ground with some of her limbs twitching.

“Did I forgot to tell you that we have strapped you to a shock collar. We also have some other alternative ways to control you if you want, but I guess you’ll be cooperating from now on.”

“I… will…” She answered, gasping. She felt like she was punched to the chest with that charge. It was too high for the usual shock collar, too high to the point of dangerous.

She looked at the accomplice, who was now standing, dusting his sleeves from the debris. He looked unharmed from the event. Not a single dislocation, wound or even a scratch.

“What are you?”

“Let’s just say that... we were once part of the fringe group.”

OHSONOWTHEIRCLOTHESAREALSOINVINCIBLE?

Thanks for reading, we're returning to regular alternating posts from now on. XD

As you may have guessed, we've updated a bit late again. As you may not have guessed, that's because our schedules aligned just a few hours ago, and there was quite a bit of work to be done on that part.

File 5: Just Passing By

A white glass door hissed close as three figures entered a narrow walkway.

Two men and a dog slowly walked through the glass bordered path. In fact it was a silent walk, nothing but the deep dark waters and the occasional streaks of silver through it could be interesting to any of them. A few minutes into that and they have reached the end of the tunnel.

There wasn’t much out of the ordinary, even if they were inside the so called fringe division. There were a few scientists here and there, handling several devices with lights flashing all around. The only thing that struck odd for the partner was the distinct lack of a particular type of research in this sector, something they knew should have existed.

“Hannah, may I ask you where is the biology division of your special research group?” Asked Rick, watching Hannah carefully few paces from her back. “Nothing here seems remotely close to anything bioengineering or organic related.”

“I don’t really know much about it.” She replied, slightly shaken but still composed. “But from what I’ve heard, they’ve stopped that in the late 80s and they just maintain a small group for managing those researches.”

“Heh, looks like somebody learned a lot from messing with nature.” Remarked his partner, with his arms crossed, staring at the underwater complex.

“Do you have anything to do with that? Or, is that too obvious to ask?”

“You see…” Replied Rick, as he motioned the two to continue forward. “This group has something that belongs to us, or him I mean. And, we’re just here to take it back, just like before. So, would you be kind to show us the old archives before anything gets complicated or worse, boom…” He paused and gave her a smile. “...just like before.”

Rick noticed that the dog froze as soon as she heard the last few words. Being a few hundred of meters underwater in a high pressure hemisphere seemed to be a bad place to have any complications, at least it was working for their advantage.

Hannah led them to one of the off shoots of the corridor, where they were passed by several of her colleagues before reaching the end of the way. They went through that exit and ended up in one of those tubes. It was a slightly longer walk than the one to the fringe division but they have reached the end of it.

“For a top secret group, you sure keep things here properly labelled.” Rick said. A sign above the panel displayed the sector number and the label ‘1957-1989 Archives’. “Just 32 years of pure horror for anyone who was part of that. Open it.”

“I can’t. I don’t have the proper clearance for these archives.” Hannah stated, with clear distraught in her voice.

“What!?” Exclaimed Al. “We didn’t go here for you to tell us that we can’t get in there.”

“Shh… we don’t want to cause a commotion here.” Rick signalled to Al. He looked back at Hannah with his unnerving smile, and then continued. “Can you at least try and swipe it?”

She grabbed her card again and swiped it on the panel. Several beeps and bops emanated from the device until a green light flashed and the door hissed open.

“How did that happen? I don’t even have that kind of clearance.”

“Looks like luck is at our side.” Rick nodded to Al, who quickly covered the nose of the dog with a piece of cloth. She quickly went limp and was placed slowly on the ground by Al.

“She was clearly lying about not having clearance. They’re all the same here.”

“Looks like somebody’s getting grumpy again.” Rick smiled back at Al. “But it looks like we could get that cured for you.”

They entered the sector. Just as they stepped foot on the main floor, the hemisphere’s lights started switching on, illuminating the other fringes covered with several shelves of files, followed by banks of huge computers then finally the center.

“Al, I think you won’t believe what we just found.”

“You don’t need to tell me that.”

Several computer panels lined the central pillar. But instead of an elevator, like the other sectors, the pillar held several bodies, apparently unused bodies from the project 152. One of them was familiar. It was Al’s former body, before his mind was moved into that doberman.

“I… I thought they would have destroyed that by now. Looks like you don’t need to build something from scratch like that mind switching device.”

“Err… I just told you, you did build one. So stop bragging and let’s start the transfer.”

“Okay, okay, slow down a bit. I still need to start the machine, but you did earn it alright.”

Rick went to one of the panels. It was similar to the schematics that he extracted from the deep web, schematics of an earlier version of the device that stood in front of him right now. He followed the wires and saw another cylinder laying on one side of the sector.

“Al, I think I found the transfer module. We can probably strap you up first while we wait for this thing to warm up.”

“Any way to hasten that warm up? This body is killing me.”

“Nope, but electrodes don’t stick themselves. And I doubt you can stick them to yourself properly.”

“Okay then. Wire me up Ricky!”

“If I never annoyed you with those kind of jokes in the past few decades, I would completely switch these electrodes to a dog right now.”

Laughter echoed through the dome as the machine slowly hums to life, processor by processor.

---

“Sam, Trey, please slow down! I know you hate physical activity, but all this seems to support the contrary.”

Dmitri was trailing behind the two dogs as they ran across the tube connecting Horbranz and the main sector, while trying to keep up with two over-excited dogs - not an easy task by any means.

“You say that for the third time already, and every time there’s even more to pass!”

“Well, maybe, if you’ve stopped acting childish and just kept running, it wouldn’t have seemed so!”

“Funny how you two switched roles, isn’t it?” - doberman said, switching attention of the two on himself - “I was already used to infantile husky and somewhat reasonable human!”

“I’m not acting like him!” - shouted Dmitri, only to be overpowered by Trey’s “I can’t be infantile! I AM a scientist after all!”

“Nice to see you two get along so nicely, guys” - commented Sam with a smirk, and carried on running forwards, having his back drilled by two pairs of annoyed eyes.

Quietly, they kept moving through the glass tube, surrounded by nothing but dark water of the lake. Well, they did so only in case you can count “arguing on each other’s behaviour” as “quiet”. Dmitri was trying to defend his responsible attitude to everything that was going on around him, Trey kept telling him to “stop confusing his and Grey’s characters”, and Sam just enjoyed the fact that he was not dragged in anything other than breaking into the scientific facility. And given his “job”, Sam didn’t care about that unimportant fact either. He could be bothered just about two things - helping Hannah, and finding out what happened to his body. The latter, he still hoped, could be at least somehow resolved by dealing with the first. So, he kept running along the tunnel Trey pointed at.

As he was about to interrupt the arguing duo with a silly “how do you even navigate here?” question, the small dot of light started glistening in front of them. Trey noticed it as well, saying “That’s the end of the tunnel there, so you can stop arguing at least about that!” to Dmitri, while pointing at the dot. Soon it turned into a lit-up sign, saying “Fringe Division”. Right after that, something hissed, and the sign got obscured for a second. Something hissed again, still in front of Sam. Than someone hissed behind him. That was Trey, slowly realising that his keycard had no access to the door. And then, he understood that the light was obscured by the other scientist, who HAD the access. Sam understood that from husky’s face expression as well. And then they both shouted: “Wa-a-a-a-a-ait!”

Both scientist and Brunolf stopped, stunned for a second by the two dog’s voices. That was enough time for them to approach the former, standing in front and behind him.

“...Oh, Trey, is that REALLY you? Didn’t recognise your howling first, to tell the truth. Also” - he pointed at Sam, standing behind - ”I’m not sure if you’re allowed to just go and bring guests in here.”

“Hey, Richard, can’t you see we’re definitely not in for a casual walk with espionage intents?”

“That’s what’s worrying me, as I have no idea what you’ll be doing.”

“Oh, that’s not what you should care about. Couldn’t you just say if you happen to have a spare key card for that door?”

“No, and you’re not getting mine. You know, the rules are strict, and you’ve already broken some”

“First, if you don’t have access, you can’t go there. Second, I have no idea what will you do inside, and I’m in charge for that part of the lab for a while. Third, I’m pretty sure that if not you, than that man, or canine friend of you--” - Richard’s angered reply ended with Trey gasping in terror, scientist falling down on the ground, Sam standing on him and Brunolf heavily panting from the seemingly neverending running along the glass-covered corridors.

“Why, why did you do that???!!!”

“Don’t get hysterical, Trey, I was just getting him agreeing to let us in sooner. Don’t worry, he’s just unconscious.”

“But think of what he’ll do when--”

“When he regains consciousness?” - ask Sam, while looking for a card - “We’ll be far away from here, and he will have nothing to prove you being involved. He could have easily tumbled on that step” - he finished, dragging unconscious Richard to the side - “Should have placed a warning sign or something here, by the way. So”, - Sam added, sliding the key card in the receiver - “are we coming or not? We have a jämthund to save!”

The door hissed, as the trio ran inside the fringe division, and Sam tossed a now useless card back to the scientist.

SAMISNOTUSELESS,TAKETWO.ORISTHATTHREE?

Okay, nothing can go wrong now. Or can it?

_________________Yes, that is about the best thing to write that I could think of.

The whole place was dimly lit by the glow of the cables running through the gargantuan machines surrounding the center. For something built in the 1960s, it was way ahead of its time. Processors that are considerably smaller for the era, fiber optics with low attenuation and touch based interfaces that can compare to the tablets of the present day; it was a wonder how the organization kept these things hidden for a long time.

“Ready? Do you even need to ask that?” Replied Al, with a tone of sarcasm. “I did wait for more than 50 years to get my real body back, remember?”

“I think my sarcasm is rubbing into you.” Said Rick, grinning. “But given that it took 50 years to actually happen, I’m not surprised.”“Yeah, yeah. Say whatever you want. Anyways, we’d better do this quick - before anyone notices something fishy.”

Rick adjusted the settings of the machine. Funny how much he had learned from just tinkering with stuff ever since they’ve left the old research facility in Germany. With all the time they had, hiding, he spent years on reading books. From literature to academic journals, libraries and institutions across the world surely did help them survive the outside world.

He adjusted the final setting, selecting the body labelled 152A - the only one of that project in the chambers. The rest were labelled with numbers going up from it. Just empty bodies, apparently. He hoped none of them were actually wiped and then deactivated.

“Commencing in 3… 2… 1…”

The fiber optic cables started glowing brightly, as the volume of data transferred was at maximum for each of them. The processors started humming, like a decoherent orchestra, straining to process the information. At the edge of his view, he saw Al’s body going limp.

“Have fun with your travels… my friend.”

---

~I hate it when I do this…~

Memories flashed across his view. Some long forgotten, others he wished he had forgotten. Every one of them were zooming out to the distance, then faded. It didn’t fade to complete darkness, though - what they call the memory lane was oddly colorful. It was like those things they saw in the 1980s movies - roughly at the same time when people started wearing those shirts with those beetles on them. They were in Paris then… Paris, 1987.

~Oh no... and here it comes… the ‘best’ part~

The memories started slowing down and zoomed backwards, with the background turning white as he approached one of them.

---

“Hey Al, wake up!”

“Huh what?” Al squinted his eyes as he adjusted his eyes to the brightness of the surrounding.

“Looks like you’re back! Nice to see you didn’t wander around the campus again.”

His eyes were still blurry from the light. ~What did he mean by campus? Don’t tell me I ended up in 1987 Paris!~

“What do you want?” Asked Al, clearly with an irritated voice.

“We need to go to the library. I got you a new shirt, after you shredded your last one. You know the ones you always glare at in campus. Apparently, they have those for dogs too.” Replied Rick, smiling as he pulled up a shirt with weird colorful patterns on them, those fractal patterns people have been making everywhere.

Backing off to the corner of the bed, Al said. “You’re not gonna make me wear that, I will NEVER wear that!”

---

Twenty minutes later, near the campus grounds. Two weary figures are walking along a busy street.

“You know that you need to wear a shirt when you walk outside. That’s their policy for pet students here.” Rick said, as he was carrying several books related to physics and engineering to the library. “You never attended any your computer science courses, and just sleep most of the days in the room. Midterms are coming and you better start studying if you want to stay here.”

“Sure. Just what I needed to get my body back. Not some codes on a black and green screen.”

“Well, this is the easiest way for us to live for free. I did got ourselves into a scholarship by hacking into the school’s records. And as you’ve noticed, it worked. We have accommodations, food and even a better means of getting information. Don’t you think it’ll be helpful for you to learn a bit of that too?”

“Nice idea! I’ll hack the records and kick you out of the scholarship, so at least I’m not bossed around by my so called ‘owner’.”

“Well, we need to keep up with the charades.” Rick said, grinning back at his ‘pet’. “I just happen to be the human one between the two of us.”

“I’ll rip you to shreds and thro-”

“SHHHHHHHHHHHHH...!” Interrupted the old lady who promptly went back to arranging several books stacked in the front of her.

They have reached the university library. The Sorbonne Library, established way back in the 1200s, it was rebuilt several times, until the last one in the 1890s, whose structure still stands till today. It was a library located just around a kilometer from their own university, Universite Pierre-et-Marie-Curie.

The library was huge. Two stories of bookshelves lined the walls of the hall with rows of tables and lamps lining the main floor. Hundreds of students occupied most of the tables, distributing themselves almost evenly among them. The afternoon sunlight shined through the huge arched windows above the bookshelves, and the ceiling itself was composed of several pairs of arcs with nice thin posts dividing the library into two halves.

“...talk about old and medieval. We might end up like her if you continue dragging us here.” Whispered Al.

“If she hears you, you might not even have the chance of reaching that stage.”

“She will never hear me.”

Rick nudged Al, gesturing with his head to look back at the lady. “Well, I think she did.”

Al’s ears drooped down and he started to walk faster.

They continued walking down the central corridor, seeing that most of the tables in front of the library were occupied. Luckily, the science sections were located closer to the end of the hall.

Rick placed his books down at an empty table and started rummaging his bag for some paper and pen. Al, on the other hand, dragged one of the chairs off the table, sat and leaned back.

“You know, since we are in the library... You can at least take a book and pretend to read it.” Rick pointed towards a dimly lit corner of the library. “They have added something new in computer science section. Just look for it at that corner over there.”

Al sighed and headed towards the dark area. Apparently, it was a some sort of energy saving policy recently started by the library, after learning of that global warming mumbo jumbo he saw on the TV once. He smirked at the thought that the organization might have caused that for some strange reason.

He reached the section. Most of the books were fairly new, being a new degree in the university. There was one book on the upper shelves that caught his attention. It was a dark green hardbound book titled ‘Game Theory in Computer Programming’. He looked across the corridor for a ladder. It was a few bookcases away.

“Heh, who needs a ladder to get that, anyway?”

Al climbed up the bookshelf and tried reaching for it. Still short of getting it. He took another step up and grabbed the edge of the book. He pulled it out, but the rough surface of the book dragged the adjacent ones with it which promptly fell on his face, making him fall off the shelves.

“SHHHHHHHHHHHHH...!”

“Ouch… that hurts. Well, at least I got my book.”

He was about to push himself up when he noticed something strange with the floor.

“I don’t remember this place to be carpeted.”

A faint gasping voice replied back to him. “Uhm… because… it’s not…”

Al quickly stood up and helped the other fellow up. It was a persian-orange shorthaired black-mackereled cat. He helped him up and picked up the book that he wanted.

“Oh, we’re actually at the same course, then!” The cat said, as he grabbed his own set of books from the ground. He took out his hand and shook Al’s. “Oh, right, where are my manners?! I am Ranier St. Martin. You can call me Rain.”

ACHARACTERTHATTOOKTHREEARCHIVESTOFINALLYSHOWUP,A3F6

Thanks for reading. Next update will be posted next week. Random Link.

Just realised "Sorry for being late" comment makes no sense because of time zones *facepaw*Oh well, then I guess we could all (not?)enjoy history lesson as the dober-man (thanks Silly Zealot for that description!) strolls down the memory lane.

File 7: Whiteout

“Hey, look the lights are working again!”

“Great…” Al stared at the table lamp situated on top of their table. It was flickering but it had that nice warm orange glow on it. Like the warmth you get from basking under the morning sun. A lovely feeling, given that Rick loved turning up the air-conditioning to it’s maximum.

The glow slowly expanded, just to fade to white first, then to black in mere seconds.

~Why do I always forget that these are just memories…?~Because Gecko and VEB want you to do so, Al.---

~Now, where am I?~

The place was dim-lit. Al squinted his eyes. Nothing changed. The sound of footsteps could be heard - it was faint, muffled as if the person was walking with pillows strapped to their feet. It was then that Al understood the fact that the bright morning sun blinded him with its light.

“Morning Al!” It was Rain. Cheerfully smiling whilst he walked back to the opposite side of the room. “Rick’s downstairs, enjoying that continental breakfast buffet we got with this room. I ordered breakfast for us - omelette, croissant and that new pet safe coffee they’ve been bragging about in this hotel.”

While Al was grabbing the TV remote from the nightstand, the doorbell rang. Rain immediately left the vicinity and answered the door. After finally acquiring the remote, Al turned the TV on, the daily early morning news report had just started.

“Here’s your coffee.” Rain passed a saucer of the steaming coffee to Al. He grabbed one of the croissants and starts eating it himself.

“Thanks.”

[“Just yesterday, Hungary has relaxed border restrictions with its neighbor, Austria. There are reports of East German, Czechoslovak, and other tourists in Hungary fleeing to Austria and West Germany. We go live to our correspondent near the Austria-Hungary border for more...”]

“Looks like a problem is brewing in Germany right now.”

“Well, there are secret elements in Germany who love messing with the country’s politics and economics... I’d actually expect this to happen.”

“It’s no secret that the NATO countries play a great role in those events in Germany, too.” Rain said, just before taking a bit out of his omelette. A fishy odor emanated from the plate, making Al wonder what was exactly in his own food.

He grabbed a bite off his own plate, but there was nothing funny about it. “Don’t mind that comment. And… did you ask them to add some fish paste in your omelette again?”

Rain paused.

[“On other news, several indigenous people from the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania formed a 600 kilometers long human chain as they demand for their indepen...”]

“I actually asked them to add fish paste in both.” He replied with a grin that would have been big enough to fit the whole plate in his mouth.

“But I don’t taste-” an explosion of strong taste and odor started forming, stopping Al from finishing his comment. Apparently, the paste wasn’t spread evenly inside the omelette. It all gathered around one area. The area which Al just took a bit of.

Laughter echoed through the hotel room as the sounds of agony emanated from the toilet.

---

“I will never trust you ever again.” Al said as he was slowly burying his friend.

“Don’t get sand on my face! My eyes are too delicate for sand!!!” Returned Rain, whose whole body but shoulders and head was under the sand. “It was just a prank! And stop fooling, I know how much you like exotic food.”

“Exotic? Since when packed fish sauce is exotic?!” He continued digging some more sand with his paws, collecting enough to fill up the remaining hole. “And I’ve gargled more than once, ate a whole canister of mint and then lunch. Guess what? Fish sauce aftertaste is still there! By the way, what part of fish sauce do you love exactly?”

“...The fish part?”

“Okay, now you’re dead to me.” Al started piling the sand around Rain. High enough that it was above his head.

“Riiicccckkkkk!” Screamed Rain. “Your dog has gone mad!”

Al paused and looked at Rick. He was peacefully resting under an umbrella with a book covering his face.

“Sorry, Rick is not available right now. He’s currently having an appointment with Dr. Sleep. Probably about his reading addiction.”

“Heelllpppp!!!”

“Hey! Could you two quiet down!? I’m trying to relax here!” Rick put the book away and walked towards the two. He pulled Rain out of the pit, to Al’s discontent.

“Thanks!” Rain said, grinning again just as he did this morning.

“Hey, you two should stop arguing.” Rick looked around. “You’re making a commotion in this peaceful spot. And I don’t want to have dormitory hall situation repeat yet again!”

Rick grabbed his wallet and passed some money to Rain. “I know your dad was the one who paid for your vacation at this resort, even if we insisted that we can pay for our own share. Take this and try exploring the island, rent some bikes or go in one of those nature trails. They don’t really accept credit cards out there.”

Al was immediately dragged by Rain towards the resort’s entrance. The island of Porquerolles was located at southern France, next to its Mediterranean coast. It’s around 50 to 60 kilometers from the city of Marseille and just a short boat ride from mainland France. Eighty percents of the island were designated as a nature reserve. The island was also known for having no vehicles at all, save for bikes, which could be rented at most parts of the island.

They got a pair of mountain bikes, given the semi-hilly terrain of the island. A whole hour and a half was spent riding around the island, mostly racing around and scaring other tourists.

-POOF-“My tire popped.” Al remarked.

Rain, still on his bike went around and stopped beside Al. “You can probably just ride with me.”

Al glared back at Rain. “Never.”

“Okay, we can probably just walk back to the resort then.” Rain points out one of the signboards posted along the road. “We can probable take that trail. It’s shorter than following the road around the island.”

“Sure.” Al replied, irritated at the current circumstances, but unwilling to continue arguing because of fatigue.

It was a quiet walk, there were no tourists along the trail. The wind was blowing in the trees, causing them to rustle. Birds were chirping, insects buzzing; there wasn’t anything else they would have wanted to do but enjoy the scenery.

“Stop staring at those birds, you’ll give them a heart attack.” Al remarked. “Especially with those claws bared. You do know this is a nature reserve, right?”

As Rain tackled Al, a dart struck the nearby tree where Al was previously standing.

“It was not supposed to happen today.” Rain helped Al up and started to run through the trail. “Why are they doing it right now?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’m sorry, Al.” His ear bent down. “My father is the head of the fringe research division. He tasked me to spy on both of you so that he can capture the two of you.”

“Wait, what?” Another dart struck the nearby ground, missing Al’s leg by a few inches.

“The thing is, he was planning on doing the abduction tomorrow, where I am supposed to ask both of you to visit the lighthouse.” Rain continued, as another dart whizzed by. “I was planning on telling you that this evening and escape from the island in the middle of the night, but for some reason they’ve changed their plans.”

“But... why? Why are you even helping us then?” Al asked with a bit of anger in his voice, as the town streets got showing in the distance. At least that was good news for him.

“It’s because… Well, I never really had a friend. I am always locked in my lab, or in my room. The only people I’ve interacted with are my father and other laboratory personnel.” Rain gasped as he was trying to talk while running. “I don’t want to lose my only best friends!”

Al and Rain eventually reached the road and started crossing the street, avoiding the bicycles passing by. They continued running straight through the resort and into the beach.

“Rick, the organization is here, they’re want to abduct us today!” Al exclaimed, his voice filled with horror.

“I should have warned both of you earlier. I just didn’t want to ruin your vacation here at this resort.” Rain added, as he was still gasping for air, holding his hands on his knees.

“Yea, that I’ll explain to you later.”

“So, what do we do now?” Asked Rick, with his face clearly showing some suspicion.

“We need to go to the…” Rain’s statement was cut short as he collapsed on Al. A dart was sticking out of one of the cat’s paws.

“Rain! D-don’t sleep now, tell me, where should we go?” He shook Rain, desperately trying to wake him up.

“...the port…” Rain struggled to say. “...MV Chaton...”

Al grabbed Rain by his arms and started carrying him. Rick followed them both as Al headed for the port.

“Are you really gonna trust him? By what I’ve seen so far, I can easily say that he is part of the organization.” he wondered.

“I trust him.” was the reply.

APPARENTLY,IN1989WORLDNEWSWEREONLYINTERESTEDINEUROPEWESTOFCOPENHAGEN

And at this sort-of-cliffhanger-looking-situation, we'd like to say... "Seee youuu... next time!"

_________________Yes, that is about the best thing to write that I could think of.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s okay. It was just a tiny amount of tranquilizers.”

“Thanks.”

A man in his late 60s was driving the tiny fishing vessel. His words were comforting to the shivering doberman, the breeze was strong at this time of the day.

Al suddenly felt someone touching his shoulder. Doberman turned his head around, seeing Rick, passing a cup of tea - just fresh out of the kettle. “Hey Al, now that it’s clear that they never had the intent to leave us. Not sure if we can even keep hiding from now on.”

“If that’s the case, then we have no choice but to make them stop. Once and for all.”

The boat was heading for Toulon, a nearby city from what was supposed to be their island escape. The sun was slowly dipping below the horizon. As soon as it got there, a faint green flash lit up the sky. After that, everything starting from that point started going green, until he saw nothing but a plain green field.

~If this dream was a movie, it would have been purged for reusing horrible transitions~

---

“Ouch, that burns!” A green beam of light moved across the room, searing some of Al’s fur as he ducked behind one of the machines.

“I never expected you guys to be visiting my humble laboratory this soon. Especially with my traitorous cat.” Said a man, carrying a bulky device. He was wearing what seemed to be a labcoat, but the stains on it removed any traces of the cloth ever being white. “This, by the way, is a wonderful device - fairly recent innovation. There’s a lot of good applications to it, but I am keen on making it a weapon.”

A finger poked Al’s back. Rain was sitting there pointing at his watch, which were displaying a countdown.

Just under 3 minutes was left. Rick, in the meantime, was behind one of the machines at the other end of the laboratory. He was signalling them to head towards the computer panel as soon as he was to start his attack.

Rick jumped out of his spot and pushed on the floor. A burst of gravitational waves flowed from his hand to the doctor’s feet. And with another quick move, a steel frame fell from the ceiling, pinning Lehrer under it.

Al and Rain made a run for the computer panel. All of the data collected by the fringe division was being stored there, along with the information of the whereabouts of his body, and research on the V38 projects.

As soon as they had opened the door, several guards with that same device aimed at them. One of them, the apparent leader signalled others to move out. Which they, unsurprisingly, promptly did.

“Do you guys seriously think I will be guarding this whole lab on my own?” The professor smirked as Rick stepped off of him and a pair of guards started helping an old man up. “I thought you were better than that. But, at least I’ve finally got you guys back, and it would be oh so nice to see how you will fare on our more recent inventions.”

Rain was a bit unnerved. He was glancing on his watch frequently, and signalling to both of his friends on the the time remaining. There was well under a minute left.

Al stepped forward - a move which made the guards move to a defensive position. “Well, Dr. Heinrich Lehrer, what if I told you that we wouldn’t accept your accommodations and whichever free services you will provide with them?”

“And how would you do that?” Asked the doctor in an amused tone.

“Well, we can simply duck.”

The three ducked down and braced themselves right at the moment when an explosion rocked the facility. A huge metal beam swung across the laboratory hitting most of the armed guards. Several pieces of debris started falling.

Al and Rick began fighting the few remaining guards as Rain ran towards the computer panels. The doctor got knocked down by the explosion, but was still struggling to walk

The last few guards fell easily, as most of those bulky devices didn’t survive the impact from the explosion. The ones that did started malfunctioning as the area started heating up from the heat of the fires that started around the laboratory.

[“Heeelp!”] A scream from the radio rang through Al’s ears as he was fighting the last guard. He quickly finished it by lifting a concrete slab and slamming it into the man, barely being able to control it with the flow of adrenaline. He ran towards the computer area where he could see the doctor restraining Rain.“Why must you betray me, your own father?” He said as he was grabbing Rain from his scruff. “You only needed to do one simple job for me, but instead, you’re destroying everything that I’ve built?”The doctor threw Rain to the corner and quickly went to the computer. The sight was infuriating Al. He held his hand towards one of the walls and started pulling it with his hands. A dim red glow started to form and the sudden burst of energy made the piece fly across the room and hit Lehrer.

Rain struggled to stand up at the corner and crawled to the device. Al was about to run in and help him up when the ceiling in front of the computer room collapsed from the recent loss of support. Several huge pieces of debris along with soil started piling up to Al’s horror.

Al took out his radio and placed it on his ear. “Rain! Are you okay?” He screamed in fear. “Answer me!”

[“I’m okay. But I’m trapped.”] The radio buzzed. [“Dad has encrypted the file. I don’t think I can decrypt it.]

“Okay. But don’t worry. We’ll get you out of there and we can decrypt that later.”

[“I don’t think that’s possible. That’s too heavy even for both of you. This place is collapsing. You need to get out as soon as possible.”] Al’s eyes widen as he heard those words. [“Just leave me here, I’m uploading the files to that new network we’ve been talking about, the one they were developing at Switzerland? I know you can find them, you’ve learned a lot since we’ve became classmates.”]

Rick arrived and stepped beside Al. He was visibly exhausted from the fight.

“No! Don’t say that!” Al insisted. “We can take you out of there.”

The place shook once more and several large slabs of concrete fell on the pile.

[“Rick, please drag your stubborn dog out of here. I need you both to extract these files later. If you don’t leave now, it’ll be too late.”]

In a low monotonous voice Rick replied back. “Okay.”

“What? Don’t do this to me Rick. I know we can save him! We just have to try.”

Rick grabbed Al and started heading out of the facility, dodging obstacles with his power.

“Al, he is right.” Rick said. “We need to be alive to extract the data and use it. Nobody benefits from it if we’re both dead.”

[“Goodbye Al.”]

Rick and Al just exited to the streets and was met with several groups of people, walking around. The ground trembled a bit as the radio went silent.

“Hey, was that an explosion? I hope they don’t start a war because of us.”

“Don’t worry, that was probably an earthquake, I felt it a while ago too. And besides, we’re in Hof now, we’re safe from those communists. Their power is waning now, they won’t interfere.”

Al just stood on the street, as more people passed by. He closed his eyes in sorrow as the cool early November breeze blew. Just as a single speck of snow landed on his snout.

---

-BRRRRRR!-

“Oh, look who’s back here to visit us.” Said a booming voice, snickering like a fox.

Al opened his eyes to see that it was a fox, or THE Fox. He always saw him after going through that machine. A gargantuan compared to him, the fox had smooth white fur, nine tails and red eyes. Beside him were two other beings, as usual, a blue gryphon with yellow eyes and a green dragon with green eyes. In front of them was a table with objects scattered around what seemed to be looking like a Dungeons and Dragons game kit.

“Okay, I have questions for you guys. Oh, and I don’t want any of those wake up or explosions like the last time.” Al reacted as soon as he realized where he is. “What did you do to our world exactly? I’ve heard of that Universes and Unrealities mumbo jumbo, the concept of hyperverses and whatever you beings are all the previous times. I seem to be an abnormality of my world and for that reason I think you are involved. Also, if you don’t answer me straight, I will make sure that I visit this place one more time after this one just to terrorize all of you.”

The three kept a straight face, as the Kitsune moved closer to the doberman. He stared at him for some time until he said:

“Guys, I think the low order being is trying to threaten us.” Said the fox as he grabbed Al by head and placed him on the table. The other two, on the other hand, bursted in laughter.

“Seriously?”

“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you.” The Kitsune rubbed his eyes with his tail. “You are pretty much a product of the expansion pack these two wanted to play. Basically, we upgraded your world with the Orb of Great Knowledge which is part of the Superpowers expansion pack for the game. Apparently the product was a bit glitchy, and it makes beings who use the byproducts, like you, bounce over to this hyperverse first before getting sent back to your own world.”

“Orb of Great Knowledge? Wait… so Silverore has that orb?”

“Yes, but keep that information in the hush. You don’t want to destroy our board, err… I mean your world, right?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Oh, and about your second comment. I think you would actually want to visit this place again.”

“Wait… what?”

“Oh look, it’s time.” Said the fox, now grinning to the tip of his ears.

“Don’t do that! Tell me why?”

His hands were now in position. “You will know why, soon.”

“DON’T YOU DARE!” Al shouted as he started running across the board towards the Kitsune.

“Wake up!” -SNAP-

---

“Al, wake up! I’m sorry... but something went terribly wrong.” Said Rick, as Al’s eyes adjusted from the dim glow.

“Why? What happened?” Asked Al, now irritated beyond bounds.

Rick pulled up a small mirror and faced it at his newly awakened friend.

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